Flying Scotsman passes through Cheshire

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I don't share the romantic when it comes to trains
but, even on a grey day, you got a vivid take. Cool! (y)
 
That's a nice close shot. I was a bit further south, and almost had it blocked from view.

IMGP9296-proc by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

Fortunately it cleared out of the way in time.

IMGP9303-proc by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

I was expecting "Tornado" as I've lost track of Scotsman since it stopped being 4472. Seems as if Tornado is 60163, so I am claiming it's not that difficult to get confused. I usually steer clear of shots of steam locos on electrified rails, but there aren't so many choices at the moment.

(I wasn't sure whether to stick the photos here, or open another thread. Seemed to be a bit pointless opening yet another similar separate one, but I'll do that if you prefer Fraser).
 
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There are plenty of faults with my photo - there is no 'movement' in the shot making the train look static and it needs a touch more room in front but I knew I only had one chance to capture the image as it was a 'fly-past' so picked a faster shutter speed than I normally would- lack of panning practice!

I edited out the electric overhead cables to suit the subject a bit better.

Thanks again for the feedback - it all helps
 
I'm the same - I didn't dare experiment with any kind of blur, and never really do on steam locos. Although it was on the fast line, I'm not sure it was really going fast enough to get a decent blur going on.

I did wonder which part of the line had no electric cables - I couldn't face the idea of trying to edit all that lot out though.

If you're still in the same area, 27th has a special going up to North Wales and back, so a chance to get away from the cables.
 
Excellent. Very sharp. Good idea taking out the overheads. Most photos on here are taken at a shutter speed that freezes them.

I hop to see it near Lydney, Gloucestershire tomorrow but there's even thunderstorms forecast for early evening. Just have to see. Missed Tornado yesterday due to torrential rain.
 
I've been out this morning as it passed through on the way to Shrewsbury to pick up the remainder of the Cathedrals Express after a couple of days rest at the Crewe Heritage Centre. Tried for a couple of motion blurs, but it wasn't really going quickly enough as it approached a level crossing.

IMGP9327-proc by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

I'm not really sure where the graininess has come in. I'm using a Sigma 18-200 with a polarising filter, have done a small bit of editing in Raw Therapee, then into a very old version of PS to drop the image size and a basic sharpen. I suspect I may have overdone the graduated filter, but it's just my luck that whenever a steamer comes past it's overcast and cloudy. That said, comparing the data on mine to those on Fraser's photo, I'm shooting at f6.3 which won't help much. I was on 1/100 shutter priority though. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I'm all ears.
 
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Mike.I've just come on to post my photos of this loco.I haven't been on for several days so this i the first time I've seen this photo.

First off it's too dark. It's a green loco,it looks black. For 1/100 sec it looks sharp…the number looks ok at this size. I suspect the camera slowed down the shutter speed to get more light as it was underexposed, you say you were on Av rather than Manual where you could have set the shutter speed and aperture. At a larger size the extreme left side, the two onlookers,is out of focus.I wouldn't try using a grad unless I had the camera on a tripod and had definitely left enough room above the retrain roof but how do you gauge that ? If you were hand-held you're likely to have dropped it down on to the train-maybe that's what''s happened. You need to take this into your editing software and lighten it..If you have a grad tool use it on the sky to give the clouds some presence.

Re. noise( graininess) it can come with cropping the photo,adding exposure and of course ISO.
 
Thanks for the thoughts John. I'm not entirely sure I'm brave enough for fully manual (yet), but one of the reasons I'm taking practice photos of all this LNER and GWR stuff is as a practice for next time a proper red loco is in the area :)

I should say, though, the grad filter is something I added in Raw Therapee, not an actual proper on-camera filter, and it may well be that I've just dropped the Y-pos down too far. There was very little in the sky in terms of nice contrasty clouds - usually when I go out taking photos of steamers, it's almost impossible to distinguish between the sky and the loco output. I was hoping that the onlookers would be seen more as motion blur, which is why I'd dropped it down to 1/100 in the first place.

I'm probably out again on Saturday morning if I get up in time, I might try my old manual f2.8 wide angle lens to see if that helps - not least because the Sigma I used above is quite a dark lens once you start zooming in. But I also might have more of a play in RT with these, though it might be better to start another thread for such things.
 
My effort was very disappointing. The bridge I chose to watch from was very crowded and I was late - hence I was off to once side and there were a lot of trees. I'd cycled there so only had the x100s and then the train was late and it was getting dark so I had to ratchet up the ISO to 1600. The x100s wouldn't focus and thus the picture was dark and blurred. So I went for the vintage look in Lightroom.

34721500426_b5d3731354_z.jpg
 
delb0y said:
My effort was very disappointing. The bridge I chose to watch from was very crowded and I was late - hence I was off to once side and there were a lot of trees. I'd cycled there so only had the x100s and then the train was late and it was getting dark so I had to ratchet up the ISO to 1600. The x100s wouldn't focus and thus the picture was dark and blurred. So I went for the vintage look in Lightroom.

34721500426_b5d3731354_z.jpg
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Derek..Darned weather.On Friday it came though Gloucester and a massive dark cloud blocked out the sun which would have been directly on it on my side but beyond it over the fields it was quite bright,so back-lit. The the next day it was lovely. Come Tuesday it was greyed over until one hour after the train passed through when the skies cleared almost completely. Sod's law.

Here's what happened on Friday 19th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-39991602

So..For the Tuesday(23rd.) run the time schedule was not publicised but I went to realtime trains and got it.

I've got photos on Leander and Princess Elizabeth, both the crimson lake, then red you like. It's my favourite colour too. I don't see Leander at all and Princess Elizabeth isn't up your way…just a quick look at UKSteam.
 
droopsnoot said:
Thanks for the thoughts John. I'm not entirely sure I'm brave enough for fully manual (yet), but one of the reasons I'm taking practice photos of all this LNER and GWR stuff is as a practice for next time a proper red loco is in the area :)

I should say, though, the grad filter is something I added in Raw Therapee, not an actual proper on-camera filter, and it may well be that I've just dropped the Y-pos down too far. There was very little in the sky in terms of nice contrasty clouds - usually when I go out taking photos of steamers, it's almost impossible to distinguish between the sky and the loco output. I was hoping that the onlookers would be seen more as motion blur, which is why I'd dropped it down to 1/100 in the first place.

I'm probably out again on Saturday morning if I get up in time, I might try my old manual f2.8 wide angle lens to see if that helps - not least because the Sigma I used above is quite a dark lens once you start zooming in. But I also might have more of a play in RT with these, though it might be better to start another thread for such things.
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Mike. try this with diesels..the Voyageurs and 125's,Virgin,whatever.

Set the camera to manual mode. Set the shutter speed to 1/800 sec..maybe 1/1000 sec for a Virgin Pendolino,they travel at some speed..the steam Tours do 60-70mph asa you know. Set the aperture to f7.1. Here's the trick. Set ISO to Auto so if the camera needs more light to keep exposure it won't drop the shutter speed or open up the aperture thus losing depth of field. ,it will jack up the ISO. Not sure what shutter speed you'd need for this one though ..Lol. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/rail-journeys/new-hitachi-trains-set-for-virgins-east-coast-line/

You will still risk high ISO on a dull day though but a reasonable day it should be ok.
 
Re. Red locos. Apologies,Derek..That should have been for Mike. Lesson. Don't post when you're tired. We're off to Cornwall at 9.00am tomorrow and have been doing what you do prior to a holiday..ie. getting knackered collecting everything you need. On the bright side Tornado arrives at Penzance next Monday, the 29th. and I've found a great location..a footbridge just prior to the station which has St Michael's Mount as a back drop. So good I better get there very early..1 hour 30 min maybe.
 
JohnC6 said:
So good I better get there very early..1 hour 30 min maybe.
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Yes... early. I do a bit of cycling, not much but just enough to inadvertently stumble across the location of (what I thought was) a minor bridge across the track. Hence me rocking up late for the photo opportunity, yet discovering half the county and their dogs were already at this (what turned out to be) well known spot. So early is good!!

I look forward to the shot with St Michaels Mount in the background. It sounds great!!

Derek
 
delb0y said:
My effort was very disappointing. The bridge I chose to watch from was very crowded and I was late - hence I was off to once side and there were a lot of trees. I'd cycled there so only had the x100s and then the train was late and it was getting dark so I had to ratchet up the ISO to 1600. The x100s wouldn't focus and thus the picture was dark and blurred. So I went for the vintage look in Lightroom.

34721500426_b5d3731354_z.jpg
Click to expand...

I like the way that's come out, obviously it's not a technique you can do a lot of as it would become repetitive. But if it's salvaged an otherwise-poor image, why not? I know what you mean, though, I've been out to these things before and come away with a range of images that just aren't up to it. And I know what you mean about bridges - I don't know if that's just because it's Scotsman. I found a great pair of footbridges, and both were very busy by the time the loco actually arrived.

John, thanks for those numbers, I'll have a play. As you say, testing on modern stuff is fine but of course the speeds are very different. On that side view I was trying to keep the shutter speed low for motion blur, but it's not really worked as I'd like. As it was approaching a level crossing at that point, and only on it's way to resume the tour, I suspect it was quite a bit below 60mph.
 
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