Nostalgia & History > a Message in the Night

Learning to use Photoshop in the past few months has been a labor of love. More "labor" than love to be sure, at least so far. One aspect that I have been anxious to learn is how to properly use the various color correction, balance & enhancement features. I've experienced several self-learning moments and have been pleased with a few of my results.

I've always loved night time, extended exposure photography. But my style is definitely not in the 'mainstream'. I have never owned a strobe, or any kind of flash-bulb equipment. I have always preferred to use available light, no matter how bad the light source was for Kodachrome photography. Over the years it has fit perfectly with my hit & run style. I can show up at a given location, go in and get multiple shots & angles and be out in a very short time. Most times I had my shots in the bag and was gone with nobody ever knowing I was there. In those days I was fully aware that a lot of the K-64 results I would get would be heavily tinged with that ghastly yellow-green tint. I just accepted that fact and concentrated on composition while shooting in the night. At the time I knew the bad color-toned results I was getting could be corrected, provided I was willing to pay some professional lab to do so. But I didn't worry about that. I just kept on shooting. I had no way of knowing that something like Photoshop would be in my future, but now that it's here...

This one of my early attempts at color correction. I've still got a lot to learn. But here is that shot, along with a short observation of a very common scene for the average railroader. The caption:

1. Dirty-faced AT&SF 8771 slumbers through the night at the roundhouse in Emporia, KS. Dirty, grimy units are a constantly recurring thing in the average train crewman's career. A really dirty unit will often get the classic reverse-tagging: "TEST DIRT, do not clean!" But almost as common, and almost-as-classic is the "WASH ME" shown here on April 12, 1978.

Thanks for the handi-wipes!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/22 15:46 by santafe199.

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That's a great photo! I look forward to seeing
more of your old K-64 pix. This one turned out
very well.

Excellent!!

Your picture captures the very essence of the night time around a rail yard!!

Wash me? No No No!

Why wash the nose? They're only going to lop it off and replace it with a bigger, boxier one in a few years. ;^)