Tussle With A Tressle

wxwax

American Hobo Song
From the depths of the Great Depression
On the occasion of the train display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning,
Down the track came a hobo hiking,
He said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm heading for a land that's far away
Beside the crystal fountain
I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain



In the Big Rock Candy Mountain,
It's a land that's fair and bright,
The handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
The boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the sleet don't fall
And the winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain.



In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
You never change your socks
And little streams of alkyhol
Come trickling down the rocks
O the shacks all have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And gingerale too
And you can paddle
All around it in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain



In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
The cops have wooden legs
The bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmer's trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the sleet don't fall
And the winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

4labs

Nice set Sid, The second one works best for me. Love the perspective and DOF. I think the BW needs a little curves adjustment to add more contrast IMHO..

gus

Nice one mate...for a quick second there i thought that 1st one was real. Which lens ?

coldclimb

Gave me the urge to watch O Brother Where Art Thou again. That first one really DOES look real at first glance. Nice.

wxwax

Humungus wrote:

Nice one mate...for a quick second there i thought that 1st one was real. Which lens ?

Thanks Gus. It was the 70-200. I had it at f4, I think, and still had trouble grabbing focus. With the little trains moving, I ended up using some of the of-center autofocus points, and waiting for the train to hit the mark. It was an interesting challenge. But I'm glad I tried a few panning shots - gives a better sense of motion.

wxwax

4labs wrote:

Nice set Sid, The second one works best for me. Love the perspective and DOF. I think the BW needs a little curves adjustment to add more contrast IMHO..

Thanks Eric, I'll try that. I thought it was too harsh, but maybe not.

gubbs

Nice shots Sid, that first one is class!! I didn't realize it was a model until I saw the others

wxwax

gubbs wrote:

Nice shots Sid, that first one is class!! I didn't realize it was a model until I saw the others

Thanks Gubbsie, that's why I was trying for. It's a fun exhibit. I may go back and try more panning shots.

Tell you what, keeping constant focus while zoomed in on a moving object at 200mm is tough! I had to break down, and do what pathfinder preaches - set alternative focus points. For the motion shot at the top, I closed down the shutter, to f16 I think, hoping to help out the focus a wee bit.

wxwax

4labs wrote:

Nice set Sid, The second one works best for me. Love the perspective and DOF. I think the BW needs a little curves adjustment to add more contrast IMHO..

I tired what you suggested, Eric. Not sure if the diference is perceptible, but I was running into pure white in places so I had to be careful.

gubbs

wxwax wrote:

Thanks Gubbsie, that's why I was trying for. It's a fun exhibit. I may go back and try more panning shots.

Tell you what, keeping constant focus while zoomed in on a moving object at 200mm is tough! I had to break down, and do what pathfinder preaches - set alternative focus points. For the motion shot at the top, I closed down the shutter, to f16 I think, hoping to help out the focus a wee bit.

Sorry Sid, I'm not sure that I've understood that correctly, help me out

Thanks

wxwax

gubbs wrote:

Sorry Sid, I'm not sure that I've understood that correctly, help me out

Thanks

At such shallow depths of field, it was really hard to keep the train in focus. So if I framed a shot and the train had to be in a specific place, I couldn't use all the AI Servo focus points, I had to pick one. Otherwise, the autofocus kept grabbing the wrong thing.

And even when I selected a single focus point, if I moved the frame slightly as the train came through and the focus point brushed close to a leaf or a trestle support, it immediately grabbed that instead. So focusing became a real challenge. It was an interesting, albeit slightly frustrating exercise.

Given that the train was black, contrasty and moving, and the surrounding distractions were unmoving and had less contrast, I had presumed that the autofocus would readily grab and hold the train. I was wrong.

DavidTO

Cool set, Sid. I, too thought the first one was real at first.

Couldn't you use manual focus, and pre-focus on a bit of track, wait for the train to come by and snap? You could even pan with the train and snap at your focus point. I guess part of it depends on how long it takes the train to get around the track and back to your point.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

Cool set, Sid. I, too thought the first one was real at first.

Couldn't you use manual focus, and pre-focus on a bit of track, wait for the train to come by and snap? You could even pan with the train and snap at your focus point. I guess part of it depends on how long it takes the train to get around the track and back to your point.

Hi David. Yes, you could pick a focus point and snap. I found even that to be challenging. I guess because of the narrow DOF and the small size of the subject, I found that if I prefocused on a piece of track, the track itself was in focus but the train itself was ever so slightly soft. I think the reason there was so little margin for error is because I was often at 200mm, f4, and standing quite close. I wanted a shallow DOF, but it came with a price!

DJ-S1

Cool stuff, Sid. Like everyone else, I didn't realize they were models until I saw the 2nd one. I find that kind of thing interesting. What was it about the 1st one that made it more realistic? It's not like when you look closely at them and study them you can tell "real or model". It's an instinctive thing, at first glance you know, or think you know.

This sort of issue is a big deal in computer graphics circles. I had always thought that most CG animations don't look real because they are too perfect, but it must be more complicated than that.

In this case (the 1st one) I'm guessing that the motion blur of the surroundings helps, and that the angle of the shot seems like something natural. Then in the 2nd shot, the bridge isn't OOF, so it's construction jumps out as being odd. And the angle of the shot doesn't seem like it would be easy to get in real life. But still, it's amazing how the brain makes assumptions in an instant.

DeanMcM

Very Nice!

wxwax wrote:

American Hobo Song
From the depths of the Great Depression
On the occasion of the train display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens


Very Nice Sid!!
Almost thought they were real also.

wxwax

DJ-S1 wrote:

Cool stuff, Sid. Like everyone else, I didn't realize they were models until I saw the 2nd one. I find that kind of thing interesting. What was it about the 1st one that made it more realistic? It's not like when you look closely at them and study them you can tell "real or model". It's an instinctive thing, at first glance you know, or think you know.

This sort of issue is a big deal in computer graphics circles. I had always thought that most CG animations don't look real because they are too perfect, but it must be more complicated than that.

In this case (the 1st one) I'm guessing that the motion blur of the surroundings helps, and that the angle of the shot seems like something natural. Then in the 2nd shot, the bridge isn't OOF, so it's construction jumps out as being odd. And the angle of the shot doesn't seem like it would be easy to get in real life. But still, it's amazing how the brain makes assumptions in an instant.

I think it has to be the motion blur. Not just the scenery, but also the wheels. I guess it occupies the brain enough to divert attention from the little plastic man in the cab!