It's Day 4 in my blog series: 6 Days of Canon 6D Images from Route
66. Each day I will post a few of my favorite images along with some
photography tips - from the "Mother Road." Hope you enjoy the "ride."
Location: Gallup, New Mexico.
In the previous posts in this series I have not talked too much about the Canon EOS 6D. So today I thought I'd share with you a cool – and quite impressive – feature: the detail that's in the camera's RAW files (a.k.a. digital negative).
I made the image above from the file below. Once again, I used my Canon 17-40mm lens.
Because the train was very underexposed and the sky was bright, I thought this would be a good image to test the camera's RAW file capture capability – because rescuing shadow detail (without getting a lot of noise) and preserving highlights is important to photographers.
Low noise in low light at high ISO setting is important, too. That's another feature I like about the camera. See the first post in this series to see the quality of my low light/high ISO images.
Back to my train image. I work in Photoshop more than in Lightroom. In Photoshop, I pulled out the shadow detail (without adding noise) – while retaining detail in the sky and clouds. Kinda cool, don't you think?
Tip: Always keep in mind the end-result image that you can create in the digital darkroom. Don't be so quick to delete a file.
I like black-and-white pictures of trains (and clouds), so I converted my color file to black-and-white using Nik Silver Efex Pro. All my plug-ins are listed on my Save on Plug-ins page. While you are there, check out the great deal on all the Nik plug-ins.
Speaking of clouds, we also had great clouds at Red Rock State Park, not far from Gallup.
I used a Tiffen Polarizing filter to darken the blue sky and whiten the white clouds in the image.
Tip: Don't cheap-out on a polarizing filter, or any filter. Sames goes for tele-converters. You always get what you pay for.
Here's a fun behind-the-scenes iPhone shot of me shooting by the tracks later in the day. My ears are still ringing from the sound of the train's blaring horn.
If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama. If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.
All the gear I've packed for this trip is listed here.
Okay, it's time to get back on the road.
Explore the light,
Rick
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