Good Train, Bad Photo?

If you feel like most of the pictures you take of trains seem to lack that certain flair, don't feel alone; the world is built on photographers like you and me, who make our livings in careers other than photography. This means I need all the help I can get when it comes to getting photos to look good. Yes, I've had a camera in my hand since the mid 1970s; doesn't mean I'm good at it though. I continue to struggle with composition and adequate lighting, the latter being almost impossible to find in the Pacific Northwest. But nothing compares to the frustration one can feel when confronted by a photo they like which contains unwanted elements, namely overhead wires.

Wires can ruin an otherwise well-proportioned shot of anything. But what does a person do when it's just not okay to whip out the Stihl and saw the poles down? They get a copy of Wire Pilot for starters...that's what! The folks at Color Pilot offer Wire Pilot software to remove wires from digital photos. The site shows great shots marred by those pesky wires, and the demo shows just how easy it is to remove them. Best of all? Its free. Color Pilot does offer other software to buy, but this one costs nothing.

For years I've been skeptical of digital photo editing. It's hard being certain that something free could help salvage otherwise useless photos. But we know there's only one way to find out if Wire Pilot is worth anything, and that's to download and try it.

Well I'm convinced now that a lot of my photos can be saved by this software. I took the photo portrayed in this post (above is the original), and used Wire Pilot to see what it could do. I was impressed with the interface and the result. It's simple to use, doesn't take a lot of resources to operate, and ends up doing a darn nice job of removing wires! The most amazing this was that it was able to continue the look and feel of clouds that were behind the wires. I don't ask how it's done, but I sure appreciate what they created!

Major photo editing is one of those things that some people take issue with, because it's taking what's "real" and creating something that is "pseudo-real." I struggle with the ethics of it too, but have concluded that for my own use I'm all for taking advantage of digital tools to make the photo better. I draw the line at posting one of these heavily edited photos to an online database like Railpictures.net or RRPictureArchives.net. But for my own websites, or snapshots, I'm willing to work with a photo that otherwise would not be published.

Give it a try sometime, with one of your digital photos that needs help. It will be worth the effort!