Blacking out
by CorySmith

Comment:
For some reason, not entirely clear to me, I had to read this caption three times before it "clicked." Then I fell out of my chair.

Math
by tmhalling

Comment:
As a LD motorcycle rider, THIS image both hits close to home, and is a personal favorite. FANTASTIC.

Heavy Rail vs. Light Rail
by cdrice

Comment:
Print available (as will be another, wider-crop version of this same scene).

Past & Present
by Rob O

Comment:
Congrats on your top 10 finish, Rob! Love your free study shot, too. Can't believe our luck of finding the same place. If I had realized that was already in your free study entry, I wonder what I might have found to shoot later into the night? Probably would have been mugged or something -- things more likely worked out for the best... :D

Perhaps if I had stayed with one of my wider shots I could have given you more of a run for your money! ;) Hope next time we are of-one-mind that we actually get to meet.

Heavy Rail vs. Light Rail
by cdrice

Comment:
Here are my comments / editing details that I would have entered if I had time during submission...

Note to DPC/SC: My camera's date/time is set to UTC; I had this approved by the SC when I first joined dpchallenge.

Finding this place was a bit of luck and on a whim of an excursion to find something to shoot for this challenge. I was looking for something to shoot on the actual railroad, from ground-level of the rails themselves, disappearing into the distance. (Although I think there might be plenty of those entered already...) When I realized the only time I could shoot for this was late Monday night, I thought I'd try to get some interesting city lights or such on the horizon, etc. On my way to a reasonable-easy access-point to the railway, I walked right past this and thought "WOW -- I bet THAT would make for some interesting photographs!" Sho'nuf, it did.

I was mortified to find that my brand new D90 doesn't accept my cable remote I had used on my D80 for years. Of course, I had left my D80 at home and just brought the D90. I tried to stop down and take longer exposures in bulb, but even with the tripod, I kept slightly moving the camera during the exposure and just couldn't keep sharp. So, I resorted to leaving it on 30' and opening the lens up to f/8 and bumping the iso up a bit. I still can't believe I can't use my cable remote. Grr -- gotta find a new one now.

Anyway, after a few setup shots, I knew I was on to something. From my point of view, the left bridge was almost pitch black. I'm amazed and pleased how well it turned out, illuminated solely from the reflected light from the light ropes on the bridge on the right.

"Just submit it."

Shot on tripod; Nikon 17-55/2.8 lens at 31mm, iso 200, 30s and f/8.0.

Took lots of shots at 17mm, which I really loved, but they had a number of distracting elements at the bottom left and right of the frame, and I decided to go with this closer shot.

Didn't have time to play with processing much at all.

Without further adue, here's how to over-process and suck the life out of a really lovely shot:

RAW/NEF -> Lightroom
Crop (custom)
Basic:
WB Temp -> 2900 (as shot)
WB Tint -> -2 (as shot)
Exposure -> +0.70
Recovery -> 45
Fill Light -> 35
Blacks -> 6
Presence:
Clarity -> +30
Vibrance -> +35
Saturation -> +30
Tone Curve:
Point Curve: Strong Contrast
HSL:
Green Hue -> +13
Blue Hue -> +100
Purple Hue -> +21
Orange Sat -> -22
Purple Sat -> +28
Magenta Sat -> +9
Sharpening:
Amount -> 0 (to be done in Noise Ninja)
Noise Reduction:
Luminance -> 0 (to be done in Noise Ninja)
Camera Calibration:
Camera Neutral

Round-tripped to Noise Ninja...
Profiled image
Luminance:
Strength 15
Smoothness 20
Contrast 7
Sharpening
Amount 150%
Radius 0.7
Suppress halos

Back in LR, now with TIFF from Noise Ninja...
Basic:
WB Temp -> -31 (should have done this first, but didn't notice how much it improved the colors)
WB Tint -> +13 (should have done this first, but didn't notice how much it improved the colors)
Fill Light -> 10
HSL:
Orange Hue -> +32
Export:
JPEG, 80 quality, sRGB, constrained 640x640, minimize metadata

Heavy Rail vs. Light Rail
by cdrice

Comment:
Huh. 1s, 2s and 3s? Guess I chose the wrong shot to submit.

Out of Service
by bjoern

Comment:
My personal favorite entry in this challenge. I wanted to do something very similar to this, but couldn't find a suitable location. I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with -- but I love this shot -- this is precisely what came to mind for me when I read about this challenge.

My grandfather used to take me walking on the railroad tracks just down the road from their house when I was a very little boy. I still have a collection of old spikes and plates we'd "clean up" from time to time. The old rusty spikes and rails really bring back great memories.

Past & Present
by Rob O

Comment:
I thought I had found a unique place to shoot my entry from... I guess not! ;) Were you as surprised as I was when you saw "the other" shot of this scene in this challenge? :P

30's Era
by rayg544

Comment:
I love the subject, but it feels like an awkward crop -- want to see either more or less on top and right sides...

Fuel for Thought
by beekeeper

Comment:
Wonderful colors; I think a different crop would have improved the composition.