I just posted a layout design article on my business site discussing how to make the decision as to how many towns to include in a design. You can read it here:
http://shelflayouts.com/2017/07/how-many-towns-should-i-put-on-my-layout/
Model Railroad Blog
An Audience of One
Why do we photograph and create video of our layouts? After doing so, why do share them with others by posting them publicly?
The answer to the first question is an easy one to answer, for me at least. Photography allows me to interpret and experience the layout in ways that are simply impossible with the naked eye. It’s a form of creative expression and experience. There are infinite possibilities in terms of how you position the camera, compose a shot, and light it. Once that is done, limitless opportunities follow in terms of how you edit it. With each approach, we can create a different experience and mood. In the end, however, for me personally, I photograph my layout for no other reason than I like looking at the images when I’m done.
The answer to the second question is harder for me to answer. Why do I post images publicly? Why do you? I’m more of an internally motivated person so, while I appreciate a compliment as much as anybody would, they don’t give me that much of a rise. Most postings are followed by a few “attaboys”. On occasion, somebody will email me to let me know that they think an image of mine sucks! Criticism is fair game whenever you go public. If compliments aren’t that crucial to me, and on occasion, somebody will take a shot, why do I, or any of us for that matter, bother? I think it comes down to two things. First, by posting publicly, you get a sense of being part of a larger community. Second, there is the satisfaction that some person out there will be brought enjoyment, find an idea they can use, or find a source of motivation. Every step I’ve taken on the learning curve has been paved by the work and generosity of somebody else. It’s nice to be able to think you can pass a bit of that on.
Since my last posting, I’ve spent a lot of time studying and trying to get up to speed on the subject of video and cinematography. The creative energy and passion in the film hobby (or industry) has been such an energizing, motivating, and uplifting experience. There is such a relentless drive to push the envelope and try new things. There is so much great information out there. As is often the case, when you Google one subject it often equates to pulling a thread that leads to even more interesting information. Somewhere along the line, I ended up with the search phrase “short film cinematography winners”. That led me to two exceptionally well-executed films. The first one I came across was the short film, The Painter of Jalouzi. The second was the feature length film “Tangerine” the breakout film from Sundance 2015. What’s interesting is that the creators of each granted numerous interviews where they lay out in startling detail the equipment they used, filming techniques and their editing processes. There’s a lot in there that can be applied to still photography as well. I was particularly interested in the cinematography of “Tangerine” since it was filmed in LA. Watching it on demand I was able to hit the pause button at various junctures and look closely at how things were done. Afterwards, I used some of the ideas to compose the shot above. Specifically, the deep color saturation, low sun angle, and sun shining behind the palm. If you’d like to go through the exercise yourself search Google and YouTube with the phrase “The Making of Painter of Jalouzi (or Tangerine)”.
Rotary Beacon
In looking at videos of CF-7’s in action on the LAJ, the rotary beacons on the cab roof are very noticeable. The filament headlights in my loco had already started burning out so it was time to replace them with LED’s, a project I’d been putting off. Time to bite the bullet and get it done. Since I was already going to have the shell off, now was a time to add the rotary beacon effect. The challenge of these micro lighting projects is wire management. There are just so many hair-thin wires to keep track of and cleanly tie up and route. We don’t have the luxury of hair-thin zip ties and other tools available to us for larger wiring projects. I picked up the LED’s from HDA Modelworx and with a lot of hand holding from TCS tech support I eventually got it done. You can see a demo. clip of the finished result HERE.
Compelling Video – July 3rd
The practice video I uploaded onto YouTube was a successful exercise in terms of rooting out where the major trouble spots are with respect to creating the type of video I have in mind. Just as with still images, model railroad videography presents unique challenges. At the top of the list is handling the backdrop. As I mentioned before, they often show up as a low contrast, muddy/brownish blue. The solution with still photography is relatively simple, just remove the offending real background and replace it with a photo of actual sky. Doing so totally transforms an image. But how do you do that with video? After a false start trying to edit out the layout’s actual blue wall background as is, I decided to experiment with the more traditional video strategy of using a green screen. The end result wasn’t perfect but was very promising.
I went to Michaels and picked up a sheet of neon green, foam backed, poster board. It’s crucial that no shadows or dirt spots appear on the board. When you look through the lens you need to see a totally uniform sea of green.
Here is how the frames looked in a short ten-second practice clip I shot.
Next up was the editing which was done in Adobe Premiere Elements. I loaded the clip onto the storyboard as well as a still photo of actual sky. Using the “green screen” tool, the green screen was removed so the actual sky showed through. If you look closely you can see just a hint of artifacts on the branches and the edge of the loco but the result was much cleaner than I expected and at least gives “proof of concept” that background removal can work with model railroad video.
Step Into My World
The camera lens allows us to interpret, capture, and experience our models in a way that simply isn’t possible with the naked eye. It takes us to the place we envisioned when we started this whole layout building process. The image above of Federal Cold Storage took most of a weekend to get the end product you see above. Here’s how I went about it.
I start with a quick test shot which reveals all sorts of nasty things we didn’t notice at first. Harder to get a handle on is figuring out what is missing from the scene. After looking at the test shot I decided to add the tree in front of the yellow brick building. The smallest details can make an enormous difference. For example, I added two pieces windblown trash, one against the fence in front of the dumpster, the other just to the left of the cross bucks. I also plucked out a small palm that looked too man made and vacuumed stray ballast off of the street.
Now that the scene was photo ready I tried about half a dozen test shots from slightly different angles. In composing the shot I wanted to frame the structure with the crossbucks on the right and tree on the left. I also wanted just a hint of the palm to put the Socal regional stamp on things. Viewing angle and shadows are critical. The lower you can get the lens, the larger and more imposing the model subjects appear. For this reason, I used an iPhone as it is small enough to allow you to get really low. I set up one Tungsten photo flood and adjusted it’s position until I had the shadows “painted” where I wanted them. Specifically, I was watching the location of the shadows from the crossbucks and awning.
With everything in place, I shot five images, keeping the camera perfectly still, at different focal points near to far. I focused on the crossbucks and grade crossing rail first and then focused on subjects further back in the shot. The five images were then loaded into HeliconFocus and combined into one shot with continuous depth of field. The actual background is drywall painted sky blue. I removed the wall background with Corel Knockout 2 and replaced it with an actual sky image from my photo library.
The last step was to do some touch up with the photo editors. Helicon Focus can leave some funky artifacts and blurs which I cleaned up as best as I could. A few surfaces had a bit of red or green hue which needed to be fixed. A tap with the levels tool and it was mission accomplished.