Anyone Else Notice This?

[Joseph Cermak]

Take a look at the second car and see if you can figure out what's going on. Seems like a PS job gone bad to me....

PhotoID: Photograph ©

[JRMDC]

Funny! Third car has been stretched, also, if my inspection is correct - although no axles added!

[Bruce Budris]

Yes. You are right. This image is a series of stitched verticals where it appears two of the frames did not overlap properly. Even though this photo has been floating around for a couple of months, you're the first to notice (even including myself). I have often used this technique when I feel a wide angle will unsatisfactorily diminish the background, or in other cases where I would like to obtain a medium format-ish feel to a photo. Of course a moving object is a bit of a hazard with this technique which is why I usually try to use a focal length that enables the full capture of the object in one vertical frame. Here, the train is too perpendicular for the focal length used so the full length of the train is captured across multiple frames. The software is occasionally very good at sorting this out, but in this case I didn't noticed that this was not (completely) one of those times.


Anyway, this photo is also a couple of stitched verticals:
photo/558487/

[JimThias]

Bruce, I'm not sure I understand your explanation, but why not just shoot it in the standard landscape orientation? Seems like a pretty standard scene for a horizontal shot.

[Bruce Budris]

For the frame width you see here, a horizontal shot would have required a fairly wide angle lens. The wide angle lens would have diminished the prominence of the background (making it appear smaller and more distant). Using a series of vertical shots at 110 mm helps to draw the background mountains up in the photo. The series then enables me to establish a more panoramic view with the background pulled in. When comparing the stitched verticals to a single horizontal of the same scene, I find the net effect in this case is not as pronounced as in the photo entitled "Night Transit". In that photo the stitched verticals gave me both the width, depth and the prominence of the midtown skyline - more like a medium format image. Of course in that photo the subway trains are entirely within one vertical frame

[Joseph Cermak]

Huh, I have never heard of that before, but if it gets a good result that's what matters. Can definitely see how it works better with some subjects than others though

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Bruce Budris

For the frame width you see here, a horizontal shot would have required a fairly wide angle lens. The wide angle lens would have diminished the prominence of the background (making it appear smaller and more distant). Using a series of vertical shots at 110 mm helps to draw the background mountains up in the photo. The series then enables me to establish a more panoramic view with the background pulled in. When comparing the stitched verticals to a single horizontal of the same scene, I find the net effect in this case is not as pronounced as in the photo entitled "Night Transit". In that photo the stitched verticals gave me both the width, depth and the prominence of the midtown skyline - more like a medium format image. Of course in that photo the subway trains are entirely within one vertical frame

Interesting. I guess that's a good technique to use when you have no room behind you to back up.

I have used stitched verticals for a panoramic before, but never thought of attempting it with a moving object. I'm not even sure how you'd be able to pull that off if this technique requires several frames while panning.

[Bruce Budris]

Trying to capture a moving train across multiple vertical trains was more of an experiment - to see if the stitching software (in LR) could figure it out. If I'm really interested in making sure something comes out in the final stitch then I would always try to get the train in one vertical. However, I found that through a combination of speed, luck and advances in stitching algorithms, that if one is fast enough with both the panning and shooting - and selecting the right frames to stitch - that the software does a pretty good job of figuring it out - as long as you don't mind the final product possibly missing one passenger car. If you're not lucky (or not paying sufficient attention) then you may end up with slightly elongated (or compressed) car - as in the aforementioned photo.

[RobJor]

Still pretty good panning but think a little work before or after could have eliminated the extra truck and maybe escaped notice? In the way back world, 2005?? in a class we would combine verticals by hand, not that hard as I would trim them with a little overlap and line them up. Like wise for HDR.

Bob

[Bruce Budris]

Yes. It would be interesting to see if pre-cropping one or more of the offending vertical frames (or with different frames in the series) might help to guide the stitching algorithms into a better final outcome - particularly for this situation where a moving object is traversing multiple frames.

[nikos1]

I guess RP doesnt care about blatant photo manipulation anymore. The current Photo of the Week for example is a total fabrication...

[Joseph Cermak]

Originally Posted by nikos1

I guess RP doesnt care about blatant photo manipulation anymore. The current Photo of the Week for example is a total fabrication...

And I'm sure any critical comment on the photo regarding that was rejected.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by nikos1

The current Photo of the Week for example is a total fabrication...

Care to 'splain that?

Of course at least two [dozen?] obvious VTR fakes showed up on Flickr...

[nikos1]

This is what the first run of the VTR 431 looked like in real life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vivObfxGo&t=394s

This is what it looks like on RP

PhotoID: Photograph ©

I think the VTR 431 world tour is up to over 50 shots now!

[Decapod401]

Interesting. I didn't know that you could buy a drone with a GATX Filter.

[Moffat Road]

Originally Posted by nikos1

This is what the first run of the VTR 431 looked like in real life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vivObfxGo&t=394s

This is what it looks like on RP


I think the VTR 431 world tour is up to over 50 shots now!

Wow, I really think Railpictures.net should remove this photo from the database. Blatant overuse of Photoshop in my opinion.

If it doesn’t accurately represent what truly operated that day, what are we to believe in future photographs. Where does it stop?

Mike

[Mberry]

Originally Posted by nikos1

This is what the first run of the VTR 431 looked like in real life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vivObfxGo&t=394s

This is what it looks like on RP


I think the VTR 431 world tour is up to over 50 shots now!

Wow. He had posted a fake shot on Facebook and admitted as much, but he kept this one a secret.

[KevinM]

Wow. A PoTW for a train that's not real?

If that's truly the case, I think the photographer involved does have some explaining to do. This particular photographer appears to be a relatively prolific self-promoter, linking virtually everything he posts here to his (apparently) popular Facebook page. If the above allegation is true, perhaps there are no limits to how far some folks will go with the self-promotion thing.

[troy12n]

So this one too?

PhotoID: Photograph ©

He did a pretty good job. I'm not going to throw stones.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by KevinM

Wow. A PoTW for a train that's not real?

If that's truly the case, I think the photographer involved does have some explaining to do. This particular photographer appears to be a relatively prolific self-promoter, linking virtually everything he posts here to his (apparently) popular Facebook page. If the above allegation is true, perhaps there are no limits to how far some folks will go with the self-promotion thing.

Presumably VRS is not interested in photos of non-VRS power.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by nikos1

I think the VTR 431 world tour is up to over 50 shots now!

The VTR 431 fakes are amusing, but they all miss the point that 431 really did lead the Rutland to Bellows Falls train that day.

[John West]

Will be interesting to find out what really happened. Back in the bad old days (pre Photoshop) I was involved in some publicity/annual report kind of shoots (ironically for GATX, and it was the GATX units we wanted on the train), and the back in those days we switched the offending units out of the consist. But who knows, one can certainly be very creative with Photoshop. Not at all bad, but certainly not what RP claims to be looking for.

[RobJor]

Hope I remember this correctly???:

I have book of Wabash company photographer photos. Company guy rode a train into Cleveland and wanted to shoot out the cab of skyline as they crossed a bridge but they could not hold the train because of some scheduling so he went out later and took a b/w photo of the scene standing in the location and stripped it in to the original b/w photo out the cab he took when the train was in the yard. Of course this was publicity photo so a different animal.

This was a real scene he just could not capture but was "real" as was the original in this thread(with technical issue). No problem for me.

Fake News, fake photos, fake ----- not so great

Bob

[bigbassloyd]

Originally Posted by KevinM

Wow. A PoTW for a train that's not real?

If that's truly the case, I think the photographer involved does have some explaining to do. This particular photographer appears to be a relatively prolific self-promoter, linking virtually everything he posts here to his (apparently) popular Facebook page. If the above allegation is true, perhaps there are no limits to how far some folks will go with the self-promotion thing.

He has to defend his honor as being the greatest photographer ever by any means necessary.

The fake glory that goes along with being a famous niche photographer is really important. If he's lucky, he will be so famous that if you poll 1000 random people on the street, 2-3 will know who he is.

Loyd L.

[Decapod401]

Gone from the front page! photo still carries the award badge.

Edit: Now gone from the database.