Nice work Corey. The lighting in your pictures is good, but the focus needs some work. Maybe a higher aperture setting will help (which will require a tripod as the shutter speed will slow down)?
I also use Helicon software which allows several pictures (of the exact same scene at different focus points) to be merged into one picture. It makes a big difference as I have a hard time with depth of field in N-scale.
Here’s a shot of a pair of boxcars I weathered a while back:
Thanks Bruce. I snapped these pictures quick before I left the house yesterday morning. I was taking pictures to see the lighting difference between older pictures and now. I have had a hard time getting a good depth of field picture. My camera has only preset settings for adjustments. It does have a macro setting, but I didn’t use it for these pictures. Any idea what auto settings I should try to use? It has auto, shakey hand, landscape, portrait,self portrait, and movie.
It’s going to be tough without manual settings. I’d put the camera on a tripod (to eliminate any blur that might come from camera movement) and try all the auto settings on the same scene. That way you can compare and see which works best.
Ideally, you want to be able to set a camera into an aperture priority setting. This allows you to manually set the aperture and the camera will set the shutter speed accordingly. The higher the aperature setting (which translates to a smaller lens opening) the better depth of field you will get. Trouble is, the shutter speed will slow down which requires a tripod to prevent the camera from moving during the shot.
I’m sure others with more photo experince than me can chime in and give you more specific advice. But your work is nice. [tup]
Two other things to remember: 1) Use plenty of light and turn off the flash; 2) Use the shutter timer so you do not move the camera while pressing/releasing the shutter button.
Hello. I certainly am impressed with all the photos ahead of this post. Great stuff, everybody! C&O 2-6-6-2 is really nice.
Here’s my scene with my newly comleted shed for the track department. The Prairie type engine behind my shed would look small next to that C&O engine! The boxcar between the caboose and the 2-6-2 had been the previous shed in this location without trucks and couplers. Now it’s back in revenue service.
Nice work Milwaukee road. Does anyone know what the large opening on the left of that building is? I goes through to the back. I have this model and was wondering why it is open all the way through.
Corey, I am happy for you that our lighting is working out as well as you had hoped. I have fiddled with photography a lot, taken many photos over the past 10 months. I figure my ratio of those suitable for WPF to the number actually set up and shot must be close to 15/1 in favour of the junk. As jktrains is asking you to find out how to do, setting your camera so that you compose the image, and then depress the shutter release, allowing the internal timer to release the shutter once you hands are removed and the camera is dead still, is what means success for me if my idea of an image is going to work at all. As soon as I forget that darned timer, I am back to junk…AGAIN!
Big improvement in that before and after series. Wow, and congrats.
Love the Chessie steamer. I also like the stenciled/decaled bridge…very cool.
Crandell, I have had better success with the timer than without. I’ll have to make sure I use it every time. I need to figure out how to make the camera focus where I want it to. Thanks for the compliments, I’m trying.
If your camera is like mine, Corey, it may have a setting on your mode dial for auto shutter control, or auto shutter timer. I use the setting called Av by Canon, but you may have something that fits. Then, what I do is to get as much light on the subject as I can, even plugging lights into the walls and shining them onto the scene. The camera meters the light and shuts down the iris, which has the effect of increasing the overall focal length of the viewing system. In turn, really bright lights leading to automatically stopped down iris resulting in longer focal length, your depth of field and focus will improve…usually. At least, that has led to some improvement in my own attempts to minimize the “also-rans”.
MilwaukeeRoad, I had meant to compliment you on your model…very nicely done. I hope to see it in place sometime soon.
Oh Perry, Perry, Perry. When I first saw those photos of the T-Rex on fire I thought this must be another desert dweller like myself and then I saw Apache Junction in your sign-on. Yup, just down the 60 from me.
