Often photographers will set aside their camera as the sun sets and the afternoon light fades away. Taking a shot a night is thought to be too difficult for the beginner or novice photographer. Yet by giving up so easily they could miss out on some of the best opportunities of the day.
Capturing a quality photograph of the railroad at night can produce a great image. But it can also be an exercise in frustration if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m not an expert and I don’t claim to be, but so far I’ve had some success (like the image above). I find night photography difficult, but not impossible to do; a challenge if one ever gets bored with the day.
Materials
With night photography, more so than during the day, you’ll need to have a quality camera. It’s possible to use a point and shoot but very difficult. Automated ‘Night’ settings don’t do a whole lot and for many cameras it is difficult to adjust the exposure time. SLR and SLR-like cameras allow all this and give you the option of higher ISO settings. ISO becomes doubly important at night.
Having a tripod is another item almost required. Exposures longer than 1/60th make it difficult to hand-hold the camera and still get a focused image. Tripods let you do long exposures where the train “streaks” by.
Lenses are less important. I would recommend something wide-angle. You want to be able to really open up the aperture. I also wouldn’t choose a lens with a high zoom because that makes it harder to steady the camera. But like I said, if you’re using a tripod this becomes less of an issue.
Technique
There’s two main techniques for shooting at night. The first is to set up your tripod and take a long-exposure. By keeping the shutter open for a longer time, the camera collects more light to make up for the darkness.This works great when the train is stopped, but can turn into a blurry mess when the train is moving.
That being said, there are many great “streak” shots of passing trains done this way. The locomotive headlight and the reflectors on cars create a really cool effect. Both the photo at the top and to the right of this post were taken with long-exposures.
By tweaking your ISO and aperture, you can somewhat dictate how long the exposure will be and the amount of blur you will contend with. A higher ISO allows a shorter exposure at the expense of some picture quality. A lower f-stop (aperture) will let in additional light at the expense of a more shallow depth-of-field.
The speed of the train and the angle of the photo will also have an effect on the amount of blur perceived. A three-quarter shot taken of a fast moving train at trackside will have a lot more blur then a slower moving train from far away.
The second main photographic technique for night is using some sort of external light source. This can be your camera’s flash, a specialised external flash, or even something more elaborate (and expensive). The famous photographer O. Winston Link specialized in the latter. He would use up to 30 flash bulbs wired in series to illuminate the entire train. This worked best, as most camera flashes are too underpowered to light up even a fraction of the locomotive.
Sometimes night photos will look better in black and white because of the contrast. Compare this photo to the one posted earlier in full color.
You can combine these two techniques by taking a long-exposure and using a bright flash light to illuminate all parts of a stopped train. This is done to great effect by Tom Nanos on his New England Railroad Photography blog. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different lighting options. It’s the best way to learn.
For some great night shots check out this gallery at MDRails. If you want to know more about photography there’s a book called Understanding Exposure
If you have any of your own night shots you would like to share link to them in the comments below.
