I often look at these and think that I could take some pics on my layout and send them in and see what happens. I already have the picture in my mind. The only thing I need to do is get some weathering done on a pair of my BNSF Heritage II SD70Macs and 4 or 5 BNSF Trinity 5161 hoppers w/BNSF swoosh logo. I know the scene on my layout would make the cut but all my locos and rolling stock are brand new with no weathering or details added so I’m not sure about that part. I will be beginning to weather all my equipment when the layout is 100% in running order. Right now my layout is only about 25% scenicked and about 75% operational so it will be a while yet , unless I get the weathering bug and go for it.
Have any of you guys ever sent in photos to try to get in Trackside Photos? If so did they make it in the magazine?
Yes, a number of times over the course of the past 15 years, with the submitted images being published variously in Trackside Photos, Along The Line and the Annual Photo Contest features.
The pictures need to be in a certain format. (RAW???) I think they have the info on how you submit them on their web site.
I’ve noticed lately some of the pics are “less than stellar.”
From the captions accompanying the photos that are printed, it seems that both the modeling and the photography have to be up to a certain minimum level for serious consideration.
Most of us probably don’t have good enough technique, or good enough equipment to fulfill the photography requirements, thus many of the successful submissions are from professional or semi-pro photographers.
Good photography usually takes some fairly pricy equipment, lots of know-how, and at least some talent.
Personally, I have none of the above, but I do find the photos and their techniques interesting.
Ditto. (stupid missing smiley!) The recent editions made me think I might actually have a shot at getting something in there. Once I finish my scenery and weather my rolling stock, of course [:D]
I doubt the files need to be in .RAW format. Camera Raw is a specialized file type in which higher-end cameras capture everything that comes into the lens. This allows you to then mess with stuff like ASA setting, ISO setting, etc in a software enviroment like PhotoShop.
All I can imagine the folks at MR wanting to do is maybe color-adjust the photos slightly and they can so that to a .jpg.
Also with raw I don’t think you can save PhotoShop ‘magic’ like smoke and fog… raw is for only saving what the camer captured.
Go for it. Get those trains weathered and send in the photos. I am sure there are quite a few folks that put off sending things in and they miss out. If it doesn’t get in right away, try again. You are the people who support MR, so they like to see your stuff.
You’re only partly right. While a $5000 camera is pretty nice it’s not a prerequisite for taking dazzling model railroad photographs. In fact I’d suggest that it’s more the person behind the viewfinder than machinery around the viewfinder that is responsible for good photography.
So what is the minimum camera for decent model railroad photography? Here’s a list of features that (imho) are necessary…
Manual control over the apperature (f number). This allows you to control depth of field. In a comact camera the ability to use aperature priority and stop down to f8 is necessary. If you have a digital slr then you need to be able to stop down to at least f22 (stopping down refers to increasing the f-stop number which makes the hole in the lens through which light enters the camera smaller giving better depth of field - that is a wider range from near to far will be in focus)
Manual focus - let’s you force the camera to focus where you want.
Manual control over white balance - being able to enter the color temperature in degrees kelvin is helpful but not mandatory. A means to set the white balance for your particular lighting is doing.
You don’t have to have a dSLR and a bag full of lenses.
You will have to turn off any flash on the camera. It is insanely hard to take good pictures with flash. Pros have thousands of $$ of flash equipment for this.
When you frame a shot, don’t have any non-railroad stuff in the background. Your garage, shop, or TV will look strangely out of place there. The very worst is a window in the background - the light coming in will make a mess of your exposures (and look out of place too).
Try to get the camera down to a level where a scale person might be taking the picture. A high level shot may show