#StandWithUkraine

Lost On Platform

. Tagged with Name, Night, Place, Time, Train Station

After that switch back from the Business Boosting Time aka. DST, during the week a lot of my photography has to happen in the dark hours. It took me a long time to become content with the amount of noise in high iso images (this one was taken with ISO 1600), and it seems that now the manufactures have greatly improved the sensors also of the APS-C cameras. But the available improvements of the new models don’t trigger any purchase reflexes any more. What might be interesting would be a better high-eyepoint viewfinder and a more discerning focusing screen – both of it are not part of the feature set of any of the new models. Good for me, as there’s no reason for in-depth considerations or even purchase decisions.

Instead I continue to always carry my camera and try to submerse into a state where seeing doesn’t get interrupted by gear.

7 comments

  1. Hm, even expanding to original size I don’t see that much noise (not at all for iso1600). Might be seen in the original original size, ;-). Have a nice weekend – I am still trying to get used to darkness at 17.30hrs 🙁

    1. Martina, the massage in bibble5’s noise ninja tool helped a lot. A have a print from a first conversion without de-noising, and that is indeed noisy, visible especially in the uniform parts of the sky.
      And yes, that shift in time is disagreable (and unnecessary). Physically the autumn shift is easier than the one in spring, but psychologically it is bad: I can’t get rid of the feeling that daytime passes right by, without having the chance to use it for myself.

  2. And coming home from work is with the feeling of having worked overtime and returning home at midnight – when it’s only 19hrs ;-).

  3. Noise or no noise, it really doesn’t matter because that is a great image. The stark cold landscape of the railway and one lonely (or possibly sinister) person, the empty night, strong verticals of the bright lights and converging bare platforms all provoke uneasy feelings.

    1. Thx, Colin. The noise problem can be contained with enough craftsmanship, which took me quite some time to learn. But the reward is the ability to capture what I see even under adverse conditions like here.

  4. Markus, I like the feelings this photo raises in me. I’ve stood on rail platforms in the cold and dark alone on a number of occasions and this brings those moments back.

    The last camera purchase on my part was a small pocket sized Canon S90 giving me the versatility of having a camera I could literally take anywhere — on reflection it was a good decision. Noise, I’ve come to the point where my thinking is at times it can even add to the impact of an image. Things can be too perfect, to the point don’t seem real sometimes. Have a wonderful weekend!

    1. Earl, sometimes I still feel annoyed on those occasions – tired, cold, knowing to have a long way to go before an even longer working day starts. But in my bright moments I can make use of it, leave my bad mood behind and just see and perceive.
      A small camera sometimes is alluring for me, too, especially as image quality is “good enough” for many purposes – your images, Paul Lester’s and Juha Hataaja’s show this again and again. What holds me back is, besides financial considerations, that I would loose my permanent training with my DSLR, and I think a lot of my latest progress came due to a lack of distraction. Knowing my tool and getting one with it – and carry that bulky gadget…

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