Number 90 posted:Nobody does smoke better than you do, Erik. My hat is off!
I agree, it's some of the better photoshopped real-life smoke effects on a model I've seen. I have noticed plenty of people in magazines (especially RMC) are doing it, but most do it very poorly. The lighting doesn't match the smoke at all and there are usually very well-defined borders between the smoke photo and the real model. These shots don't have that look (thank goodness).
This one, looked a little odd to me until I realized that I wasn't seeing the drafting from the end of the stack you'd expect from a locomotive at speed (not to mention the angle of the smoke for something that's supposed to be moving at all):
Thought not perfect, it's still better than most post-shot smoke digital effects I've ever seen.
I look at this shot and think back to when I heard that Phillip Anschutz was looking over the real loco at Sacramento in the museum one night, which led some to think he'd pondered maybe taking a page from UP's playbook and pulling that AC-12 out of there and getting her restored to operation. I'd rather have seen that happen than the 4014 restoration currently underway!
