Contest Winner

This photo won first place in my photo club 2011 2nd quarter competition. The theme was Transportation and it was competing against 43 three other entries. I took the shot almost two years age and it just made the two year time limit for entry. Another of my shots I recently took in Alaska was honorable mention in the open class. I'll post that one tomorrow.


EXIF: D90, 18-105mm, Focal Length 18mm, ISO 400, f/22, Shutter Speed .4 sec., White Balance Cloudy, CPL Filter, 3 shot HDR Photomatix, Aperture 3 Post processing.

Very nice work on this one, Joseph. I would not have thought to use a CPL filter on this shot (I'm still learning and experimenting with filters). How do you think it helped your shot?

Congratulations on the win! Well-deserved!

It was a wet day, it had just stopped raining. I used the CPL to take off the the reflective glair from the tracks and bridge facia. It's a subtle difference that adds detail in what would otherwise be a lot of small areas of blown out highlights. It was an bright overcast day and I wanted to shoot it at f/22 to get as much DOF as I could. The CPL got rid of most of the reflective glair but because of the additional stop and a third the exposure time had to be increased. The CPL didn't get rid of all the glair you can still see it along the edges of the track. Without the CPL the tracks would have been mostly white lines. The CPL also deepened the colors.

Joseph, I'm not one to reply in the Photo Critique Forums, but I have to say outstanding work on this one. The DOF is amazing, if you would have never said anything about this shot being HDR I would have never known, just the right amount of HDR in my book. IF I had to comment on anything negative I see in this photo, it would be the sky. IF it was my photo I would try to darken that sky up a little bit. It beat out 43 other entries so you know it's not a bad shot at all. Can't wait to see your Alaska shot. Keep up the great work!

I love this shot, Joseph. Extremely well done....and smart use of the CPL filter, too. Think of a CPL filter as sunglasses for your camera.

Great shot and congratulations.

A trick I stumbled across about CPL filters is this. With polarized sunglasses on, look at a scene you want to photograph, while still looking at the scene tilt / lean your head left or right and watch how the light changes. If it looks better with with your head tilted to one side or the other then rotate the CPL to that position. This trick really is noticeable if there is blue sky in the scene and in the case of this picture of the train tracks it would be noticeable how much light was bouncing off the wet steel.

If anyone stares funny at you while trying this trick, just start mumbling to yourself and they will leave you alone.

Think of a CPL filter as sunglasses for your camera.

Click to expand...

Good way to remember to use one. Thanks, Jack.

Joseph, thanks for sharing all the info.

I wish I could have done more with the sky. It was a bright overcast day and there was no color shape or form to the sky at all, just a light dull gray. HDR goes crazy with that kind of sky. No contrast, and you wind up with a dark gray sky and halos around everything it touches. To keep it from doing that I had to turn down the Photomatix strength setting to about 35 (50 is average). Even then I still had to lighten (dodge) the sky and darken the bridge facia to get it to balance out. Any darker sky looked awful. The depth of field is the key to the shot. Without the depth of field it's just another picture of a railroad bridge. To get it I set it up to shoot at 18mm at f/22 and focused at 100ft. With those settings the DOF was from 2.32ft. in front of the camera to infinity. The front facia of the bridge was only about 30 ft. in front of me.

Good idea about using the sunglasses. I usually just take the CPL filter and put it over one eye and turn it to see the effect. (Camera not attached). I use the CPL more than any other filter and use it in several different ways. One as a CPL to eliminate glair and darken the colors, but it dosen't have to be all or nothing, it can also be adjusted by turning it away from the direction of the light slightly to let in just a little glair. Some shots work better if a little glair is left in them. I also use it as a ND filter. Turn it 90 degrees away from the light direction and it loses the CPL effect but it still is a one and one third stop ND.

And of course thank you all for the kind comments. It is most appreciated.

Congratulations Joseph I love this shot