The railfan community tends to focus on daylight rail photography, but railroads operate day and night, rain and shine, fair weather and foul alike. Just because the sun goes down, does that mean we need to put away the camera? The answer is an emphatic no! With a little knowhow, a couple of pieces of equipment and some time, nearly any railfan can capture dramatic scenes after dark. I call it painting with light. The premise of time exposure railfan photos is to show the passage of a train through a scene, rather than freeze its motion as in a daylight photo. There's pitfalls with night photos as with daylight, but a little creativity can mitigate them. The best part of night photos is the locomotives don't have to be spotless, the sun doesn't have to be positioned just right, and train speed doesn't matter. In fact, train speed can be leveraged to create unique effects. This will be a multi-part series to depict what railfans can do after dark. To begin. Here's a teaser! Westbound grain loads creep west at Soo Tower, Minot, ND. Canon T5. 18-55mm @ 18 mm, f5, 1 sec In future posts, I'll explain what I did to create this effect.
I should start off by saying, I'm far from an expert at this. In fact, I've basically just started, but suffice it to say if I can do this, anyone can do it! The fact that in North Dakota this time of year, a large portion of the day is under darkness, just reinforces the idea that I need to get out there and hone my techniques. The first step is to suggest equipment that will enable sharp time exposures. The first is a sturdy tripod. I found mine cheap from a yard sale years ago, and it's like from the 80s or something. It's heavy, a bit cantankerous, and fairly solid. Short of a heavy wind, it's going to keep my shots as sharp as my equipment and technique allows. Don't have a tripod? Try using what you have around you. A bag of brown sugar can act like a good sandbag to keep your camera steady. Anything that keeps the camera stead can work. I used a snowbank in this shot, simply plunking the camera onto the snow pile: Next is a cable release. This item plugs into or interfaces with your camera in some manner, and triggers the shutter button without shaking or vibrating the camera. The less you touch your camera during a time exposure, the better. Not all cameras support an external cable release. Mine plugs into a banana plug style receptacle on the side of my camera. I press the button and slide the moving button back, which actuates and keeps the shutter open as long as the slide lock is actuated. As mentioned above, not all cameras support a cable release; point & shoot models especially. My first successful time exposure was made with a point & shoot Fuji digital camera, using the shutter self-timer function. I armed the feature thru the menus, composed my shot, and pressed the shutter. The camera started a countdown of 2 or 10 seconds (I forget which I used) and automatically opened the shutter, ostensibly vibration-free. Point & shoot cameras can be used for time exposures, provided they have some manual settings available, or scene programs such as starry night, as well as some kind of shutter self-timer. This was the result, from an icy rock outcrop overlooking Tunnel 27, old Tunnel 28 and Tunnel 29 on the Moffat Route. I used a starry night shooting mode set for 1 or 2 minutes, but I forget which. I allowed the camera to make all the settings. An hour later, I tried the same composition on Amtrak #6 eastbound, but the canyon was so pitch black dark, I composed my shot improperly, and got the less than satisfying result: I now have an entry-level digital SLR camera, with a full-manual mode that enables maximum control of shutter and aperture as well as other things. I can independently control shutter speed (bulb mode is best), aperture (the extent your lens blades open to admit light, expressed in f-stops, larger numbers are smaller openings, smaller f-stop numbers are wider open), and ISO. The ISO level is nerdy territory and I don't understand it much, but you'll want to use the highest ISO level your camera can support, or the highest that captures images with minimal noise (digital pixel fuzz, static, anomalies). In daytime with bright sun, you can shoot at ISO 100. At night, you can shoot at ISO 1600 and beyond, if your camera's hardware can handle it without producing unacceptable levels of noise. At ISO 1600, my images have noisy areas, but it's livable. Beyond that, it's too noisy. Your camera may vary. I also have a kit wide-angle zoom lens, and an entry level telephoto zoom lens. The biggest feature you need on a camera (if point & shoot) or lens (if SLR) is a manual focus. My lenses are so basic, they do not offer a focus to infinity mode, so I have to digitally (manually/use my finger) dial in my manual focus. Autofocus either largely struggles or entirely fails to lock in focus. I found this out on a windswept hill overlooking the big Great Northern trestle west of Minot, fighting the camera to get a focus lock while 2 trains went by. Had I thought of manual focus settings on the lenses, I'd have been in business much sooner. Eventually it dawned on me how to fix the problem, and I got the shot I hoped for: Amtrak #8, the eastbound Empire Builder, dimmed its headlights in advance of the flashing approach signal guarding the siding at the east end of the trestle, where a unit grain train waits its turn to grind uphill. Canon T5, f13, 168 sec, 18mm So in review, a tripod or some method of keeping your camera steady, a cable release or self-timer function, manual focus and manual control. Not all are absolutely necessary, but with some experimentation, you can find a combination of settings or equipment that will allow you to take railfan photos at night. It's easy to get started, just go trackside, set up, and let it rip. Over time, you'll find what works and might come to love the new dimension of railfanning after dark.
Lesson 1: Working with available light. Time exposure photos can last a second or two, a few minutes, or longer. Here's one I found (not mine) that was nearly a half-hour long! http://www.railpictures.net/photo/235132/ In urban areas, available light might be high. This will limit your aperture to higher f-stops or shorter exposure times (shutter speeds). Allow me to demonstrate. In downtown Minot, ND, there's a plethora of streetlights, parking lot lights, and just a lot of general light pollution from the surrounding city. That light pollution is apparent in the glowing haze that hangs below the clouds in this shot of a CP freight crossing the Souris River. Although the available light at the shot location is low, traffic on a paralleling road and light pollution from the city lit this shot up a bit more than the cloudy (minimal star or moonlight) conditions would have otherwise done. Canon T5, 18-55mm @ 18mm, f6.3, 22 sec. My f-stop on this shot was fairly open at f6.3, due to the low light. The moon passing behind clouds can affect your night shots too. You can see the moon playing hide and seek with the clouds while this BNSF crew repairs an errant hopper. Canon T5, f13, 16 sec, 18-55mm @ 55mm The area surrounding the diamonds in Minot ate fairly well-lit, and the local library's parking lot lights are a bit too much of a good thing. The snow on the ground further amplified the effect of lots of light and long exposure, even with a tight (f25.0) aperture; this shot shows how too much light, even with a tight f-stop can be overexposed. The smearing effect of the white doublestacked containers was the goal. Canon T5, 55-250mm @ 90mm f25 56sec. The amount of light you have at the depths of night is vastly different to your camera than you realize, compared to just after twilight. These two shots were taken 2 hours apart and show the effect of twilight and midnight light levels on a non-full moon night. A crew van dogcatches a crew on a unit grain train holding short of the east end of Gassman Coulee Trestle, west of Minot, ND. Canon T5, f16, 127 sec, 18mm A heavy unit cement train claws its way upgrade out of Minot, ND on 8 Oct 17. After its passage, one could hear the 3 prime movers barking for miles away. Canon T5, f20, 314 sec, 18mm Note the exposure time was 3x longer on the cement train shot versus the dogcatch crew shot, and both apertures were only 2 f-stops apart. There's very little light in this valley, save for the small development just west of the trestle. The detail of the trestle in the second shot is largely lost in the murky darkness. In dark valleys and mountains, either a wide-open aperture and long exposure is needed to obtain more detail than just the immediate right of way. In these cases, twilight is better for shooting long exposures, if train traffic cooperates. Headlights on moving trains are extremely bright and can ruin otherwise well-composed time exposures. Tight apertures (high f-stops) are needed to prevent the headlights from blowing out (overexposed) the shot. Headlights shining directly into the lens can also cause lens flare, a phenomenon where the lights are inverted and appear shadowed elsewhere in the photo. Daytime photos can suffer from this as well as at night. FREDs and DPUs cast less light, so wider open f-stops can be used. The cement train locos' lights above, even at f20, dominate the shot--nearly ruining it. Moving the camera away from direct line from the headlights' beam is one solution. Finding the right aperture value is merely trial and error. Digital cameras make it easy. Electrons are nearly free, unlike film. Shoot many exposures, in various settings and note which works best. Keep notes, as that helps!
This is an amazing album Hemi, great to see I'm not the only one who likes railroading at night! It's almost mystical how everything comes more alive at night and you feel like your more a part of it all. Love night railfanning, pacing a train on a moonlit night, watching the switching in the local yard, and being able to see things like signals working to guide movements in the night, like the excitement when a signal blinks from red to green!
Hemi- You seem to really enjoy this aspect of the hobby. Is it a preference? Or possibly influenced by work schedule?
Lately, it indeed has been influenced by work schedule. That, and the amount of darkness during a typical early winter day.
One of my other hobbies is Astrophotography. This requires dark skies, far away from city lights. Being a railfan, choose a dark site that is adjacent to the Amtrak route through Nebraska. At first I would point my cameras up and just watch Amtrak zoom by. Then, one fateful night, I decided to try framing the landscape and right of way in my shot and hit the shutter right before Train 5 entered frame. I found that by 'painting' the train with a flashlight as it passes reveals all kinds of reflective streaks of color. A long exposure with a full moon in the sky will make your landscape appear to be shot during the daylight (or dusk/dawn if overcast). This one is one of my favorites. It was shot just on the edge of city limits, so the light pollution washed out the Milky Way, but the cosmos made up for it by sending a meteor!
These are all great shots! When I shot 35mm, I had good luck on a roster shot by setting up a time exposure and walking around the periphery popping off a handheld flash unit. The bursts of light painted the locomotive side. I've used the same technique with photos of the house at Christmas with my DSLR. All of this is fun, but it often takes more time than I have patience for and in the case of railroading, a safe spot in a good neighborhood s a necessity.
Some very nice shots, Mark! For those who want shots of locomotives that can actually be identified, more than the 'streaks of light' motion effects, keep in mind that you can have that and this wonderful, rich night lighting too. Just use all the great knowledge and clear instructions that Mark provided above, but find a spot where trains stop. You can set your tripod up across from a yard, where crews are changed on through trains. Or you can find a place where trains often wait 'in the hole' for traffic to clear. If you want to get the crews themseves climbing the ladder in the dark, don't count on it. You leave the shutter open so long that they're likely to be a blur--or completely invisible--like the trains Mark captured above are a blur. But capturing stationary trains is nice when you first experiment with this, because you can try a few different things. If the train sits there long enough, you can try several different things, and see what you like. The more clearly you can see the locomotive in the shot, the brighter the number boards will be. So don't just trust your camera's computer, tell it to take some dark shots and some light shots too. Take notes on what you try, so you know which technique works for you and your camera. You can also try the method Hardcoaler mentioned, which is fun if you have a handheld flash. Doesn't matter if it's an old flash you haven't used since you put your film camera in the closet--or a flash built on to an empty film camera! You might feel funny running around flashing an empty film camera while your digital sits with the shutter open. But your digital won't complain, it'll just be happy to capture the light. I've got a few night shots, but on film, and I have no scanner. I suppose I should find one, or do a few on digital so I can lengthen this thread a bit. If I can pull some off that measure up to Mark's, that is! By the way, you can have fun with slow shutter speeds in daylight, too. I did this with the photo in my signature, which was taken with a shutter speed of about 1/30 second. That's much faster than the tripod night shots Mark took above, but still too slow for a handheld camera. This was taken by leaving the tripod swivel loose so I could swing the camera side-to-side, and very carefully tracking the locomotive as I took the picture. The result is the same, but the opposite, of Mark's streaks of light. The background shows the sense of speed, while the train is sharp and clear (except for the turning wheels). It's not easy. It takes a very steady hand. But it sure is fun when it works!
I always liked the effect I got on this photo. At the Buffalo train station. I was not expecting the colors to reflect how they did.
Yes, you don't expect reflector tape stripes to be brighter than the headlight! But headlights aren't that bright from the side, like they are from directly ahead. And a strobe flash is a very powerful light.
And a cool enough night to see the steam rising from the exhaust stacks! Well. Now we know how to have your cake and eat it too.
That one with the Milky Way's core over the horizon is gorgeous. (Astronomy is another of my hobbies )
When we last met, we discussed how to manage the amount of light you have. Since time exposures allow you to capture many types of effects, especially when multiple trains are involved, I'll explain how I obtain these effects. Mark graciously shared some of his stunning work (!!!!!), perfectly describing these effects. Long exposures allow one to get the smearing light trails I find fascinating. A long exposure with a tight aperture, sometimes as tight as your camera will allow, plus that all-important tripod will help you get those results. On this shot, I wanted to get Amtrak as it slowed for a station stop. As it turned out, a road failure led to a 2 hour delay, as well as freezing fog. We'll get to the fog later! Canon T5, 18-55mm @ 53mm, f/32, 61 sec You'll note I used a very tight aperture. The camera wouldn't go any tighter at that focal length. Leaving the shutter open for over a minute with as much light as I had was risky. The Amtrak station under the lights in the background, coupled with the low-hanging fog led to challenging light conditions. Since FREDs are only interesting at night (they replaced our beloved caboose), they offer unique effects with long exposures. In this shot, a slow-moving autorack train passes west. Canon T5, 18-55mm @ 32mm, f/25, 280 sec This shot was exposed for over 4 minutes! I had sufficient light due to light pollution and fog, but still left the aperture closed tightly at f/25. The biggest challenge to doing long exposures like this is finding an interesting location, preferably with a sweeping curve. Sweeping curves make the FRED effect that much more interesting. This shot was risky for one reason--fog. I kept my fingers crossed that hiking up a steep hill late at night in thick fog would not be a waste, but while a WB train was not available, an EB FRED shot turned out well enough not to end up in the trash can. Canon T5, 18-55mm @18mm f/11, 64 sec I perhaps should have selected a f/13 or f/16 aperture, and kept the shutter open longer to get the flashing effect beyond the block signal, but I feared the shot would be lackluster as the fog obscured the action. At some points that night, I couldn't see the trestle, much less the signals!
Night photography isn't just about smearing light around. Sometimes, nothing is moving and you can use that to your advantage. Here, an autorack train with a boatload of power waits for a favorable signal. A CP fright passing thru the diamonds momentarily lights up the flanks of the train. Canon T5, 18-55mm @49mm, f/22, 16 sec Signals are good night shot fodder, too. The signal bridge in Minot indicated double flashing yellows on this night, and while the flashing obviously didn't turn out, double yellow over reds is uncommon for me to see. Canon T5, 18-55mm @18mm f/22, 30 sec Signals change as trains pass, and you can capture that too. Sometimes you can get the lead unit's headlight streaking, too. Canon T5, 18-55mm @ 32mm f/29, 77sec Crossing signals make fun patterns in light as well. Canon T5, f22, 18-55mm @18 mm, 38 sec.
