Some photoshop fun on the WRS...

[TrainManTy]

I've been playing around with differing weather conditions on my HO scale White River Southern Railroad, created by lighting and Photoshop. Alex (GuilfordGuy) has already posted my after-the-storm photo HERE, but this one is new.

EDIT: Light beam added, it was suggested by comments below and I changed this one because I didn't want to post another almost-identical image on the same thread.



During a torrential rainstorm, WRS train CDWJ (Concord, NH to White River Junction, VT) screams in Run 8 up Mascoma Lake Grade. 2.0 seconds at F/29, ISO 800. Lighting was created by turning all the tracks lights away from the scene and intentionally underexposing the photo. The sky, mist, and rain were added in Adobe Photoshop 6.0. The rain was created by creating a new layer, filling it with black, then going under Filter --> Noise --> Add Noise. Then I used Filter --> Blur --> Motion Blur to blur the noise, creating rain on a black backdrop. Then I reduced the opacity of the black-and-rain layer until it looked good.

Questions and comments welcome.

[davefoxx]

Tyler,

Looking good.  I like what you have done.  One suggestion, although I have no idea how to accomplish it, would be to add a "headlight beam" projecting in front of the lead locomotive, where the light would refract off of the heavy raindrops.

Hope this helps,
Dave Foxx

[Chris333]

Light would be cool, but don't overdo it.

[TrainManTy]

A light beam? Sure! I've changed the original image I posted to avoid posting another almost-identical image on the same thread.

And a LINK to the original photo.

[tom mann]

wow, very atmospheric.   

[davefoxx]

That's definitely a step in the right direction, but I think the light needs to be spread (think of a cone pointing at the headlight housing rather than a laser beam) with the light fading in intensity as you move away from the locomotive.  Watch the angle of the lightbeam as well.  Prototype photos, if you can find any, may give you some guidance.

Good work!
Dave Foxx

[Packer]

Looks good, but I'd have to agree with dave. Locomotives don't usually have lasers.

[TrainManTy]

Well, yes, it is very straight, but don't locomotives have fixed-beam headlights to some extent? The photo I used for prototype reference, had a very different angle, but I think that looking at it from the side, it would be pretty close to straight. I'll widen and dim it down a bit tomorrow night (hopefully, if I have time) but I'm going to keep it relatively straight.

[Chris333]

http://www.silphium.net/pix/locomotive.jpg

[71jeep]

Great picture thanks for sharing.





Allen.....