Model Railroad Blog

I found an old image buried in my files and decided to play around with it to see if I could approach the style and look of renowned photographer Jack De Lano’s Kodachrome work from the 1940’s. Shown above is the end result. (Full format version on my Flickr site)

The Jack DeLano photo above (Library of Congress) has that hard defined “it” quality that just draws you in. It’s hard to chase a look if you don’t know what the look is. Easier said than done when you’re talking about intangibles. DeLano shot with Kodachrome in its earliest days. Googling “what defines the Kodachrome look” wasn’t particularly helpful other than quotes from professional photographers describing it as “amazing”, “vivid colors”, “images that make you feel like you are right there”. Agreed, but what do you do with that description? More digging turns up that Kodachrome leans more towards reds, yellows, and greens and away from blue. Just looking at the image you can see how much he used shadows/contrast in his work. Finally, connecting the dots the other thing may have to do with film speed he used. (Film speed defines its sensitivity to light and that comes with a trade off. Low speed films, say less than 200 have very little grain but require lots of light. Higher speed films, say 400 for example, allow you to shoot in darker conditions but at the price of more grain). I shot with Kodachrome 64 back in the day. To Put things in perspective, DeLano used Kodachrome 10! That super low speed may account for some of the crispness in his images.

This is the photo I started with. The main takeaway is how I worked to deliberately insert shadows for contrast. All room lights were turned off and I used one photo flood up fairly high and off of my right shoulder. The big problem? Look at the backdrop, it’s just the room’s drywall painted sky blue. That’s the reason it looks so flat at this point. To correct that the next step is to crop in a sky.

This is the image I chose for the sky crop. As mentioned in a previous blog there is a smooth gradient from light blue to darker blue and not much in the way of clouds to distract you. This was shot over the Chesapeake Bay. I use a plug in called Corel KnockOut which allows you remove the background of a photo. Once that’s done, you can copy/paste it over your own sky image.

Using my ArcSoft editing program (ten bucks on ebay or free with Canon Rebel camera purchases), you can see how I very, very slightly changed the color balance towards red (7), green (2), and away from blue (-4). Totally trial and error. You just don’t want to go overboard.

Also, using ArcSoft I bumped the contrast up just a hair, again I worked hard to exercise restraint and not overdo it.

Paint Shop Pro X has a featured called “digital noise removal” which smooths out any subtle graininess. I applied that as a final touch up.

Did I capture the Jack DeLano look? No, but that’s why he’s in the history books and I’m not! I did get closer though and it’s fun to play with.

Screenshot of the Camera Plus app screen with the airsnap remote control button highlighted.

If you use your iPhone for layout photography as I do, there are several instances where it would be nice to be able to focus the lens and trigger the shutter remotely. First, you may have compositions where, although you can get the camera in position, it’s physically difficult (or impossible) to see the screen. Being able to have a second ios device that allows you to see what’s on the camera is very handy.

Second, for many photos I use “focus stacking” with the Helicon Focus software. Focus stacking means you take a series of photos at different focal lengths and the program combines them into one composite with amazing depths of field. If the camera location is such that you can’t use a tripod, and it often is, this means you need to lightly touch the phone for every shot to set the focus and trigger the shutter. If you’re not careful, you’ll accidentally move the camera and ruin your composition. Remote control means you don’t need to touch the camera.

The Camera Plus app is a simple to use program that has a feature called “AirSnap” that allows you to use one iPhone to take the photos. A second ios device can see what is on the “camera phone”, change it’s focus and trigger the shutter. The second device is called the remote. The basic Camera Plus app was either free or very cheap, I can’t remember. You’ll need to put it on both devices. Make sure wifi and bluetooth are enabled on both devices as well. Turn them on and they’ll “talk to one another” and connect.

There were two small glitches, both of which aren’t that big of a deal. When you hit the air snap button on the devices the screen will tell you which one is the camera and which is the remote. When I first did this, things were reversed and what I wanted to be the camera was assigned as the remote and vice versa. Apparently the order with which you tap the air snap icon one the respective devices matters. Second, the image on the remote screen isn’t nearly as clear as that of the camera screen but I found that didn’t really matter that much.

Having found a “mostly” non-glitchy way of remotely controlling my iphone camera opens up a lot of new possibilities in terms of composition because I can now place the camera anywhere I want without having to worry about seeing through the viewfinder.

An argument could be made that Jack DeLano was one of the most gifted photographers of all time. His work showcases the mind blowing, intangible, qualities of Kodachrome film. Library of Congress photo. (1940’s era)

A recent publishing project has brought me back to the images of renowned photographer Jack DeLano. DeLano’s journey is a story in and of itself. What’s been on my mind though is trying to put my finger on what makes his images different. Can it be identified? If so, can we apply it to model railroad photography. Part of the equation is DeLano’s superstar compositional skills. The other part is the color film he used, Kodachrome. Once routine, I used it during my teenage railfan years, it’s properties are now considered legendary.

In his excellent blog, A Kodachrome Retrospective, James Tocchio writes, “In the short documentary The End of an Era, a National Geographic film crew follows Steve McCurry as he shoots and processes the final roll of Kodachrome to roll off the assembly line. A man who’s possibly shot more Kodachrome than anyone else (by his own estimation, over 800,000 images) calls it a legendary film, adding, “Probably the best film ever made.”

That’s pretty high praise. But what made it so phenomenal?

Kodak’s contemporary literature is decidedly understated when measured against all the lauding the film receives today. They described Kodachrome as nothing more than a moderate-speed, extremely fine grained film for daylight shooting. Nothing too special there. Even when rating the film’s resolving power, things were rather staid. With 96-135 lines per millimeter, it landed right in the middle of Kodak’s resolving power scale. But these descriptors fail even to hint at what made Kodachrome so special. For that, we have to talk to photographers.

When asked what made it his favorite film, Ned replied with one succinct sentence. “Brilliant, natural colors.”

This sentiment’s been echoed by everyone I talked to. The owner of my local processing lab, a shop that’s been in business since the 1970s and has weathered all the storms of the past fifty years, said of its colors, “Kodachrome was unreal. Actually, it was extremely ‘real’. No other film could make such true, vivid images. When you exposed it right, you got a slice of real life on film. It was incredible. The best photos I ever took were made on Kodachrome.”

In the film, McCurry confirms these statements on Kodachrome’s intangible qualities. “Sublime, rich colors. The best rendition of reality.”

So, the question becomes, can we edit digital images to replicate Kodachrome? Far easier said than done. McCurry eludes to the difficulty of doing so when he refers to the film’s “intangible qualities”. Capturing “intangible” and putting it in a bottle is an elusive goal. Photo editors with more talent than I’ll ever have, are giving it their best shot. One such editor is Jamie Windsor who has a great video on YouTube where he explains the challenges. He’s made an extremely respectable run at capturing the Kodachrome look, even offering an editing plug-in at a ridiculously low cost.

It’s going to be fun to watch people take a run at seeing if they can capture Kodachrome’s magic with digital. If they are ultimately successful, applying it model photography opens up an entire new world of creative possibilities.

I took this image in the late 1970’s using Kodachrome. Back then we thought nothing of it. It was just what we all used. Digital is amazing but it has yet to capture the intangible qualities of this legendary film.