Photo Thread.

cocoshovel wrote: »

Burst is just the setting that takes continuous pictures at very quickly yes? I tried it once before but I found on my camera (fujifilm finepix, cheapest yoke in argos) it gave poor quality. Example is this pic. Its lacking something, too bright perhaps and blurry.

If your camera has a Shutter Priority mode, use that. Nikon's usually indicate it as SP on their mode dial, Canon's mark it as Tv ("Time Value"). If your camera doesn't have this mode, see if it has a mode for 'sport' or 'action'.


Camera sensor is designed like a pair of curtains. The first curtain opens and the second curtain closes. With a fast shutter speed, this happens to fast, that the curtains open and close so quickly that the 'window'/shutter isn't open long enough to see any action (thus it freezes everything).

If the shutter speed is slow, it will record action (hence why your train is a bit blurry. The curtains were open too long, so they didn't 'freeze' the train).

So next time you head out, stick it in shutter priority, and set it to 1/500 (on DSLRs this will be fairly simple to do, but I'm not too familiar with compact cameras, so you may need to take a flick through your manual).


(This will only work in the day time by the way, in the darkness, your shutter needs to be open longer to let available light into the sensor, meaning that you'll really struggle to get a train frozen at night in your photo, unless it's stopped, obviously).

Though if you head out at night, and put your camera down on something steady (bench, rock, bridge, etc.) and hold it still with a slow shutter speed (1/15, for example), then you'll get a nice lightstreak effect like this;




(Not my own image, lifted it from a Google search).


Alternatively, if you set your shutter speed to say, ten seconds, and you put your camera down in a sturdy place, and take the photo before the train comes, and the train is gone before the second curtain closes, you'll get something like this;



(Again, not my own image, lifted it from a Google search).


The reason you need to have the camera in a sturdy place and can't hold it by hand, is because it records any movement in front of it, and there's no way a human hand can hold a camera steady for ten seconds, so if you move the camera a bit, you'll get motion blur in the photo;


(Not my own image).


And that's preferably avoided in these kinda photographs.




Fair play on some lovely photos by the way, gents. Not a massive train enthusiast myself, but I'm hoping for some snow this winter now, so I can head out and get a few photos beside the tracks. They look great.



EDIT: By the way, cocoshovel, I really think, with all the white in that scene, your photo would make for a great black and white shot. I did a quick conversion on it, I hope you don't mind me bastardising it, but if you do, just let me know and I'll take it down;





Just thought it'd look good in black and white so I thought i'd throw it out there incase you hadn't thought to try it out

steamengine wrote: »

Thanks KKV, very interesting stuff there. I have a problem with blurring too, where I don't want it. On the compact I have 'Panasonic Lumix', I can see now - thanks to your post - I should have it set in Intelligent ISO mode, rather than Normal mode, for moving objects - much appreciated. :)

No problem, hopefully my post made some sense

Without going into how things work or why they do, with ISO, what that essentially does is makes the sensor more sensitive to light. So if you double your ISO, you half your shutter speed (if that makes sense?).

That is, the camera is twice as sensitive to light, therefore the shutter doesn't need to be open as long as it did before you bumped up the ISO.


The downside to using high ISO is that you get more noise/grain in your photo.

Again, I use DSLRs myself, so I'm not too familiar with the compact camera settings these days (and there are so many different kinds it'd be impossible to know how to use them all), but that should be a rough guide for you.


Just one other thing, too, cameras have a limit on their maximum aperture and maximum ISO. Again, without getting technical, if you have a shutter speed of 1/500, and your photo is too dark, it means that the camera is at it's highest ISO and aperture combo. So you'll need to adjust the shutter speed (slower) until the camera can record the scene in front of it as bright as it is supposed to look.

Generally speaking, if the camera knows that the photo will be too dark, your shutter speed on the LCD will blink continuously to let you know that it's too fast.


Again though, every camera is different, and as much as people hate manuals, a quick flick through the section on the manual that explains the different modes will give you a good idea of how your particular camera operates.

If you're using the modes, most cameras have a 'fireworks' mode. This will be handy for light trails, as it selects a slow shutter speed.


Sorry if that sounds like a load of random waffle. I'm no photography teacher!

Judgement Day wrote: »

The North Kerry was some experience.

I have a personal interest in it, having lived near Listowel for 10 years. I lived west of the town and the level crossings at Gortnaminch and Killocrim. The bridge over the River Feale was a spot I'd frequent.

duffmckegean wrote: »

As another native to the area, i can vouch for that.
It's a tough line to get pictures of though, especially in the Listowel- Newcastlewest run.
Anything in your collection JD?!

I once saw a photo of the Feale bridge with trackwork and signalling intact. There was a distant signal on the Ennismore side of the bridge, probably for the LC at Cuckoo Lane/Killocrim.

Maybe JD can uncover some but in the meantime I'll share what little I have. None are mine of course, I'm just a nipper, but putting them here for posterity. I'll give credit to the original photographer if they come forward.

B107 in Newcastle West


The next four are of Listowel station. The last was taken in 1988 very shortly before the track was lifted. This was taken from http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/listowell/index.shtml

Yep, that's correct. The bridge at Ashtown was taken from a station on the Youghal line, can't remember which one.