Railroad Tracks


The caption for this photo read, “They say as a photograghper you should never shoot on a railroad track becuase it is not creative and cliche’, but who ever said that did not take into account that sometimes a railroad track shot is just plain awesome and if that makes me un-creative, then so be it.”
We’d attempt to say something funny about this photo, but we think the caption is entertaining enough!

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70 Comments

  1. And what about this aweful skin smoothing

    • Gal with a Camera

      And what about your “awful” spelling?

      • what about this one- not everyone is from English speaking country and word “hiljainen” gives a hint to intelligent people that we are dealing with a person probably from Finland. where that is? you find out.

      • Gal with a Camera

        @njaaa, I was just joking. Gosh!

      • What about your awful misuse of quotations?

  2. STOP IT RIGHT NOW.

    NOW.

  3. I was gonna say… The photo is over-processed, but decent. The caption? Definitely corny. Don’t try and justify your work… Just do what you love, and if you’re decent enough, your work will speak for itself.

  4. Well it’s bright…………………….and she has two glass eyes.

    • That’s good, she won’t be able to see this picture…

    • And a plastic face with that cheap, made in China look. They apparently forgot to put the eyebrows on the face as well and just left the marks where they should be.

  5. Snidely Whiplash approves of this pose.

  6. Well, if untouched, she has beautiful eyes, but her face seems as if there is nothing there for me to focus on. Her hair has that cheap doll texture to it & her elbow is out of focus & the track past her head is not sharp. As for photos on railroad tracks, I like them, it gives the impression of going somewhere..

    • “if untouched”? what are you talking about? of course this is (badly) retouched.

      • “if untouched” in this context means, “If this weren’t ruined by the poor editing…” they are not trying to say that the photograph is “untouched”

    • How does lying on train tracks give the impression of going somewhere? I fail to see what story this could tell other than “about to be run over by a train”.

      • maybe going to the other side? you know, crossing over?!? maybe.

  7. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah…berathe….hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…two glass eyes!…lol…hahahahahahahaahahahaahaha..omg breathe…hahahahahaahahaahahahaahahahaahah. Okay. I’m done.

  8. Ashley Taylor

    this bitch stole my boyfriends shirt. for real though… all this over editing. -.-

    • Are you sure she didn’t steal your boyfriends ARM? It is just looking really beefy… Angles, people, angels.

      • no, angels can’t help those who don’t understand angles. 😉

  9. glass eyes, wax skin, and I swear that arm is not actually from her body. Are we sure this isn’t a really lifelike mannequin??

  10. TOnya@Nouns

    My eyes hurt now!!!!!!!!!!!

  11. If you’re gonna over edit to this magnetude…might as well smooth all of the pilling off of that tank top…

  12. Jilly Jay

    It appears that the train has already been through and has singed her skin. The concept for this picture could have been good but it clearly was a miss with over processing.

  13. Looks like the fauxtog was using Portrait Pro and said, “Hey, what happens when you slide all of these pointers all the way to the right? Wow, that’s cool!” They haven’t found the hair tidying sliders yet though. Worst part is somebody is paying money for this crap.

    • Say what you will about Portrait Pro, but that hair tidying tool is awesome. I bought it and use it just for that.

  14. At least the tracks look natural.

  15. “do not copy” that’s sound advice. I think I’ll follow it lol. I can somewhat forgive the horrible editing, but this pose?!? Omg! Could you pose her any more unflattering than this?!?! This faux, like many others obviously thinks beautiful subject=beautiful photograph… *shakes head*

  16. First off it’s illegal to be on the live tracks……Federal offense trespassing. $200.00 and up fine and possible jail time. Norfolk and Southern is cracking down this across the country as well as state DOTs and law enforcement. Much less said about the pour photography. They are catching violators with images on their facebook and websites. Hey turn them in yourself…..great way to clean up the competition.

    • In addition to the photographer’s criminal trespassing, there is the common sense matter of putting a client in danger by being on live tracks, (evidenced by the fact the top of the rail is not rusty.) Of course the client is also exposed to the same potential criminal charges the photographer should face.

      • You two are idiots:)

      • Wsroadrunner

        Actually George, they’re right… it is illegal to use railroad tracks for photography (or anything else).

        That said, rush right out and use RR tracks for photos and then if you get arrested you can sit there and say “George, you’re an idiot. You should have listened.”

    • Only illegal in some places. Not illegal in Oregon where I live, and a lot of photographers use the railroads often because they are near places with cool graffiti including myself.

      http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/safety/cross_chp9.pdf

  17. Ignoring the misspelling and assuming he meant “Photographers should not shoot on railroad tracks…”, what’s the problem?

    He’s not a photographer.

  18. It hurts my Eyes to look at it. The skin smoothing is horrible, and her eyes have been worked over(read: destroyed) as well. Who cares about the tracks… what did that same photographer say about over-processing?

  19. Were her eyes drawn on in MS Paint?

  20. Oh my Gawd!

    He must have used a laser for a flash. He melted her eyebrows clean off!

  21. Has everyone forgotten the SAFETY issue here?!

    • No, but given that she is laying on the tracks, one can assume that she would be the first to feel the vibration of the tracks if a train where coming.

      Also – we’re making an assumption that those are “active” tracks – there are many sets of tracks that are fairly well maintained that are no longer in use.

  22. WTH…… this is absolutely horrid, Must have been using PS Actions from one of those start your photog business tomorrow with the camera you bought today……lol should i like to these idiots?

  23. I took a photo a few weeks ago of myself; I was thrilled with the lighting and composition. Until I stopped stroking my ego and noticed that my elbow, bent toward the camera with a wide angle made it look like I had Popeye arms. Same case here.

    That and way too over-processed. Face is plastic while the rest is super sharp. The extreme sharpness makes her hair look like stiff straw, shows the pilling on her shirt, and her eyebrows look like smudges and not hair. Won’t talk about the glass eyes.

  24. The RR track – as long as you’re safe about it – I get why it’s an interesting setting for photos. But the skin on this girl’s face looks flat and plastic. It does not look natural. (And am I the only one who doesn’t get the Cleo eyes? That seems to be popular these days.)

    • Wsroadrunner

      Do you get that it is illegal to use railroad tracks for any purpose other than operating a train on? LOL

  25. It is actually an ok composed photo, the editing is what killed it.

  26. I’m a Photographer, but I’m a Locomotive Engineer first… It amazes me how people can set up shots like this, it’s one thing to be standing, but to be lying in the tracks like this? I’ve been running a passenger train at 79 miles an hour to come around a blind curve (WE have the right of way!) to find someone in their college class doing portraiture between the rails! I assume everyone thinks they’ll be able to hear the train, but it’s the train that you can’t hear that will kill you.

    IF You have to, go to a Railroad Museum, or some place where the proper safeguards can protect you. Even if you think you know a train’s schedule, we railroaders live by the sayings “Anytime is Train Time” and “Expect a train, on any track, at any time”.

    Disclaimer: I’ve run over somebody as an engineer, and when I was a conductor, I was witness to the little remnants of a drunk who was hit by a commuter train head on at 79mph.

  27. Here in CT it is also illegal to photograph on train tracks, unless they are no longer used and you have permission from property owner.

  28. Gal with a Camera

    Talk about skin smoothing overload!! R.I.P., her poor eyebrows. :/

  29. Gal with a Camera

    Oh nooooo! This is so dangerous!!! With those TWO glass eyes, she won’t be able to see a train if it comes! 🙁
    Poor kid. Her life is hard enough with having two glass eyes, metallic lips, and no eyebrows. And now she has to end it all by getting hit by a train! Talk about a sad story. Call now to donate and prevent other children and teens from having to live this life.

  30. Love the caption.. and anytime you put glamour shot Barbi on the train tracks it’s going to be great a great shot. Oy vay.

  31. good thing the fauxtog put ‘do not copy’ in her logo!!! I was soooo going to copy this to my site :p
    besides the crappy location, odd posing (did the last train take off her other arm?) and the horrible attempt at smoothing her face – but yet leaving her hair and black top fuzzy/rough, it’s the eyes that hurt me the most…so bizarre!
    This girl could be posed and photographed in a much more flattering way!

  32. OMG! So that’s where the walking doll my parents got me when I was seven went! I have been looking for her all over – I’ve got granddaughters to give her to now…

  33. Too bad – she probably paid the photographer $500.00 for the session alone.

    I’d like to see the unprocessed image from this shoot. I’m 99% sure it could be a good photo without the obvious overprocessing that was done on this image.

    Unfortunately – I’m seeing more and more of this – my 15 year old daughter informed me that 99% of the senior photos I shoot are “Boring” and “Not with it” which she went on to explain is why kids don’t want me doing their photos… I challenged her to find me photos / photographers that are “with it” and not “boring” – she brought back a pile of images that look identical to this one in terms of post processing. – High Key, blown out highlights, overly smoothed skin, glass eyes, etc…

    • I’d doubt $500, I’m sure this is one of those $50 “mini” session photographers. You know the ones on facebook that seem to never have “full” sessions but are constantly advertising their mini, $50 and I’ll PAY YOU to let me photograph you!

    • Link to your work or I don’t believe that yours are any better 😉

    • No, not a good photo, even without the editing. Your statement alone makes me question your work. I don’t think I even need to see it to know you are no better than this faux

  34. I actually agree with the caption.
    The railroad track is the best part of the image.

  35. I think that with out the bad-touch that happened, this photo wouldn’t have been all bad. The caption does kill it though. I’m wondering when people will figure out that they don’t have to edit out every aspect of someone’s face in order to smooth their skin a little…some day…some day…

  36. For one reason or another I cannot help but to keep on thinking she fell asleep lying on those tracks and someone stuck some ‘eye stickers” on her eye lids…

    It’s baaaaad…..

  37. “She could cut you in two with that stare!” No. Literally, she could. :/

  38. Eh, I didn’t think it was that bad. It’s overexposed and the photoshoppery is WAY too heavy handed. But remove those two problems, and it wouldn’t be so horrific. Not something I’d shoot, but not something that’ll send me screaming for the hills.

  39. I could actually FEEL my eyeballs while looking at this one. I think my eyes has super powers now, and not in a good way.

  40. A little too much unsharp mask haha.

  41. darrelltwo

    If you zoom in, you will see it’s not over doctored at the eyebrows, she’s a redneck teen who did that to herself. The fresh plucking is evident in the tan line and in her nose piercing that with over processing would have disappeared. F-stop is wrong for this pic for sure (and hell, maybe the camera was dialed into the green box), but otherwise, it’s just a redneck teen on railroad tracks. The imperfections in the mole mark above her left eye, the lint, not to mention there’s still detail in her plucked eyebrows, suggest it’s not as edited as you guys are screaming about.

  42. Holy fucking fuck. What has he done to her skin and eyes. She looks like a fucking Sectoid. Shit. My eyes. My fucking eyes.

  43. browneyedgirl89

    I think the photo was a little OOF at first so the fauxtog did some crazy sharpening to try to “improve” it.

    In Wisconsin it is illegal to photograph on railroad tracks. I didn’t know about that until a year ago. I had taken a couple photos on tracks and then someone informed me. In all reality there are places with tracks that are straight and any train would be quite visible, but either way, it is illegal and I will no longer take the chance of getting a fine for it. I’ve seen photographers posing toddlers on tracks… not cool. What I like better is taking photos of people by abandoned railroad depots.

  44. Brittany

    And it is against the law =/ for every state. Railroad tracks are private property. Plus, it’s dangerous!
    I am a retoucher. I wanted to be a photographer. But, seeing beautiful portfolio’s of other photographer’s work has always discouraged me from even trying. I’ve attended classes and seminars, have worked as an assistant for a decent guy here in Denver. But never went for it because I felt I lacked the creativity to create just amazing photos. Thank you, “You Are Not a Photographer!” This …lovely… collection has actually motivated me to keep working at it. Because, hell, if taking a photo and putting a plastic filter over it passes for photography now – my sad portfolio of fun everyday shots will do just fine. Haha.

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