All Aboard the Ghost Train
OK, I know I recently wrote about how most attempts at photographing the Metro fall short of being interesting, but when I stumbled across this shot by Flickr user kerron7, I nearly ran for the hills. Maybe I should have waited until Halloween to post this, as I find this shot downright spooky. I almost expect to see the ghost of Abe Lincoln standing on the platform waiting for the next train to hell.
Now the execution of this isn’t overly difficult, given that you have a steady hand (or other sturdy device) for a long exposure such as this. Oh, and owning a copy of Photoshop is a must. But I want to compliment kerron7 on his eye for a good shot when he sees one, and for his post processing work. I think he did a great job converting the original shot into b&w as well as the contrast adjustment for added effect.
I think I’ll stay off of the Metro for a while.
You could skip the Photoshop and just use old-school film. Kodak T-Max 100 with a small f-stop aperture for the depth of field and a long exposure time for the blur.
There was amazing B&W photography before digital, remember Ansel Adams?
Uh oh. I don’t want to get involved in a film vs digital debate but true, this could have been done using an old school film camera. In fact it probably was given that there is no EXIF data for the photo. That probably explains the graininess too.
Ansel Adams? Never heard of him.
Oh…but given the fact that his other photos are in color, it’s possible that he shot using color film, then scanned it, then converted to b&w? Just an idea.
From the photo comments:
I cant remember the info on this one.. but i do know it took me like 8 passes to get it right.. this was on the 3rd night.. after using a friends point and shot camera.. My big DSLRs was not working out too well.. Then converted it to black and white.. So with all my big money camera it came down to a girlfriends canon sd400.. to get the shot to look the way i like it..