Does anyone have special hints or tips on rail photography using a digital camera. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
Check out Bob’s site.
For the photography part there isn’t any difference between a film, tape, digital, or xxx camera. The differences come with the exact camera, and software used after the photo is taken. A forum search on “photo clinc” is helpful.
I had the opportunity last weekend to listen to Lou Sassi speak at our northeastern NMRA convention here in Syracuse and I learned some pretty cool things about how he got his start and what pre-historic equipment he used at the time and how he got to where he is today. I’m sorry I cannot say verbatum what he said but I do remember him saying that there was no special method when he started. A lot of trial and error and experimenting with different things and sometimes on a low budget can sometimes give remarkable results. Of course the computer age and digital camera has made anything possible. And of course this pertains to model trains and not exactly real ones…
To get the entire scene into focus, you want to use the smallest possible lens opening (larger F number). This requires a longer exposure time to get enough light into the camera light sensor. With a long exposure time you want the camera as steady as possible, i.e. on a tripod. To prevent camera shake from pressing the shutter release, use the camera’s self timer, or its IR remote control, or a mechanical cable release. The idea is to open and close the shutter without touching the camera by hand.
You want as much light as you can get. Daylight gives the best color rendition. Flourescent lamps and incandescent lamps throw different colored light which affects the color in the photograph. The camera’s color balance circuitry will probably do a better job if your artificial light is all flourescent or all incandescent, rather than a mix of both.
Try for a low camera angle so the shot is taken from the eyelevel of an HO sized person. Decide upon the center of interest (usually the locomotive) of the picture. Try for a reasonable plain background to the center of interest. In photographs, the background tree or phone pole ignored by the eye, somehow becomes very prominent in the photo.
I do all of my photos with a good point-and-shoot pocket digital camera, a Sony Cybershot. I’ve got a few rules:
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Shut off the flash. Use room light only. If you need more, haul over a floor lamp, etc. Model photography requires getting very close to your subject, and the light from a flash just looks all wrong.
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Use the self timer. As someone above pointed out, even a big, heavy camera will jiggle a bit when you hit the shutter button. For today’s lightweights, that’s an even worse problem. By using the timer, you de-couple the button pressing from the picture taking.
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Steady the camera against something. If you have a tripod, use it. If not, try to rest the camera on a solid object, or at least hold it so there’s something solid in contact with the camera body. Again, reducing the wiggle is most of the battle.
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Limit your zoom. My camera has an 8x zoom, but only the first 3x is “optical.” The rest gets more magnification by sacrificing pixels. I always stay under that 3x threshold.
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Use the viewfinder. Take a look at the whole picture. Would it look better with just a bit more zoom and bit less of the air conditioner in the wall of your train room?
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Take lots of pictures. Digital photography means extra shots cost you nothing. That one “perfect” shot is going to be the one where you forgot to use the self-timer, and it will be blurry. Do it again, and take your pick later.
Great suggestions. I will use them all. To those who offered websites as a resource I will definately take a look!
I like using a monopod (one legged tripod) because it really helps steady the camera and it’s easier to get the camera where you want it. Camera stores sell sand bags that you use like a nest for your camera when you set it on your layout for a picture (use the self timer with this).
There’s no substitute for practice - with digital, practice is free. Go for it!
I have a one legged tripod. Monopods are fun but they are not a replacement for a tripod in low light. It stops up/down mouvement but does nothing for the too/frow, left/righ, rotational mouvement. Impossible to keep it 100% steady.
Digital cameras have a limited depth of field. You can get around this with software such as Helicon Focus, but you have to buy it. There was an articvle in MRR about Helicon Focus and arternatives a while back.
Back 20 years or so MRR put out an article on modifying an SLR lenz for pinhole photography. So I took my perfectly good Nikon 35mm lenz apart ( I was crazy enought) and modified it to pinhole. The mod was riversible.
Few pictures included. ( Sorry, they did not age well in storage). Section of layout was 3’ deep and the camera was on the layout, inches from the flat car and other seen. These are scans from the prints.
So a project would be to take a low cost, used, digital camera, take it apart and mod it for pinhole photography. Now that would be great. I still remember how it was done, just need the digial camera to try it. I’m not going to take apart my or the wifes perfectly good 8MP camera to try this. I was foolish back then, not now.
Marc
Hi all i am trying post my a photo of my dog working on the fingal railroad
patrick