Close×

An abandoned train carriage, a dark night and a dazzling Milky Way present a unique night photo opportunity for Drew Hopper. He explains how he got this shot.

Abandoned places create plenty of photo opportunities. Especially at night, you can get eerie and interesting shots. Old buildings and decaying trains are my favourite subjects to shoot under these circumstances. One night the air was cold and the sky was clear with a plethora of stars, so I decided to make the most of my time and head inland, away from any light pollution.

I had always wanted to shoot this old vandalised train carriage which had been left to rest on a no longer used track in the countryside near Glenreagh on the northern New South Wales coast. On arrival I stepped out of my car and gazed up into the night sky, which was simply mind blowing. I haven’t seen that many stars in a long time, so I headed straight to the railway track to find the carriage with the Milky Way blazing right above. I couldn’t have asked for a better night! Everything was so crisp and rich. This was a fairly straightforward shot to get.

I made the shot from a low angle, shooting up towards the Milky Way, which just so happened to be in the right place. I used a high ISO rating and a wide aperture of f/2.8 to capture the stars with a 30-second exposure without getting any blur from a longer shutter speed. During the exposure I used my LED torch to paint with light the train carriage so I could create more dynamic range against the starry sky.

Back in my digital darkroom I processed the image in Adobe Lightroom and increased the clarity and contrast and made the Milky Way more visible by selectively brightening the white levels. Once I was satisfied with the RAW adjustments I moved the image into Photoshop to add the finishing touches; colour correction, noise reduction and sharpening. All in all it was a successful night – well worth staying out in the cold for until 4am to get a few new shots!


Canon 6D, 16-35mm lens @ 19mm, 30s @ f/2.8, ISO 1600, tripod and flashlight.

comments powered by Disqus