Photo & Colour chart

This is when being an Illustrator for a living comes in handy. Here are two samples that might shed some light into the "is it or isn't it green" debate.

The colour chart shows how an olive green colour appears in black and white. also we see a photo of the Richwood & Tahoe #12 in black and white. She has a very green jacket and in this picture the value difference between her black domes, cab and tender and her green jacketed boiler and cylinders is very much apparent.

In the case of Engine 490 in the photo posted of her in direct sunlight , let us compare the values in it to the colour chart. Even taking into consideration the difference in reflective properties of the Cast Iron domes vs the sheet steel cab, tender and jacket , there is a definate difference in values between the Boiler Jacket and the rest of the Locomotive.The Cab roof, air tank and cylinder jacket are reflecting a combination of daylight and sky and while they appear to be the same shade as the jacket they are actually about 1 to 2 shades darker. If the jacket was lightened because of reflection, than only the highlight woudl appear lighter as in the case of the tank and cylinders. The Jacket is a uniform value all the way around. Whatever it is , it is not black.

Two things come to mind as to the casue. It is either a green jacket, or , for whatever reason, this picture wa taken at a time when , possibly, the locomotive had only a priming coat on its jacket, hence the lighter colour. I'm going to have to put my vote in for green, mainly because primer isn't usually glossy not after the flat additives were introduced in the early 20's. If you look along the tops of the jacket, you can see glossy reflections in the paint.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2009 09:56PM by kwilcomb.