I just posted a new blog entry on my business site, “The Three Functions of Track on a Model Railroad“. Something to consider for those wrestling with the design of their next layout.
Model Railroad Blog
March 13, 2017
A Day of Photography
I had a lazy Sunday available to me yesterday so I decided to spend it puttering around with some photography on the LAJ. Getting a good shot generally takes me the better part of a day. I prefer low angle photos that give the appearance of late afternoon with its long, clearly defined, shadows.
To begin, I took a test shot with my phone and blew it up so I could check for blemishes on the layout. Things that aren’t obvious to the naked eye can be glaring in a photo. Make sure no ballast is stuck to the rails, you have no derailed rolling stock, oddly leaning poles or trees, or sloppy scenery. In my case, the utility pole behind the cross bucks was overly thick so I replaced it with something thinner.
Position your camera on a tripod so it’s at a height that you’d expect for a person standing on the street. I use the timer on my camera as opposed to triggering manually. Canon Rebels tend to shoot dark so you usually need to bump the exposure compensation (Av button) up a notch or two. I generally bracket at a few exposure settings anyway.
Photography is largely about getting the lighting right. If you decide to rely on room lighting, as opposed to photo floods, there is simply no way you’ll get decent results. You’re simply wasting your time if you try to go that route. Photo floods are only a few bucks. Clamp them to a broomstick, set your camera’s light balance to match the bulb you are using (Tungsten in my case), and you’re good to go. After a lot of experimenting, I got the best look by using just one bulb positioned about seven feet from the scene. All of the room lights were turned off and the blinds pulled. I clamped some cardboard to the fascia to create the shadows on the face of the structure to the right.
After a few hours of trial and error, I finally settled on the shot above as the best candidate. Previous efforts either had lights spots in the wrong area, dark spots in the wrong area or both. Even when I got things close something seemed to be missing. There was just a blah “flatness” I couldn’t put my finger on. I studied some railfan photos taken in the late afternoon and came to the conclusion I didn’t have enough shadows in the image. Placing pieces of cardboard in front of the layout to create the necessary shadows solved the problem. Ideally, I would have liked to been able to get one more dark long shadow in the foreground street but couldn’t get it to work out without blocking the image.
On to photo editing (I use Adobe Elements), which in this case didn’t need much, just a little nipping at the margins to improve things a per cent or two. The first step in photo editing is to crop out the areas you don’t want. Next, I used the levels tool to lightly adjust the entire photo, tapped up the contrast a bit as well as the sharpness. I went back with the selection tool and made another pass with the levels tool in select areas. I darkened the shadows slightly with the burn tool.
Next, I shifted over to Paint Shop Pro X which has my Corel Knockout background removal tool (a plug in). I removed the wall background and experimented with various sky images in my library. Generally I’m not one for white puffy clouds but, in this case, that was the background that looked best. Finally, I went back to Photoshop Elements and the clone tool to clean up a few blemishes from the background removal process.
For those that want to dig deeper into the photography side of our hobby, Bob Sobel has written an excellent tutorial on model photography HERE.
LAJ 3/5/17
In my last post, I discussed some thoughts on scene composition and, as part of that write-up, the importance of non-descript “framing structures” to surround a focal point structure. On my LAJ railroad, May-Vern Liquor is the focal point of the layout as you enter the room. Just to the right of it is the framing structure I just finished. It’s representative of the older structures on the LAJ but not so over the top or interesting as to compete visually with May-Vern.
I used two different structures for inspiration. 4455 Fruitland Avenue, shown above, was used for the street side. Google Streetview had a number of well-lit images to choose from.
For the rail side of the structure, I used the image above taken on my trip to the area in 2015. It’s on the Horn Lead a bit west of Everett Avenue.
Here’s a view of the model showing the rail side of the finished structure. I used some cut and paste to extend the prototype photo to make it long enough. The gutter and downspout are .060″ styrene painted with a 50/50 mix of Model Master “Sand” and flat white. Weathering of the spouts and gutters was with artist oils and chalk. The door was constructed using an image from another structure on the Horn Lead. Although the actual door was relatively clean, I modified the image by photo shopping on some tags. To give depth to the door I printed two photos, cut the recesses out of one and then adhered it on top of the other.
As I become more experienced with photo lamination I’ve moved to adding more depth to the structures. The roll up doors in the photo above are recessed a full quarter inch and the panel insets above the doors .060″. Adding the recesses looks much better but adds complexity as there are lot more photo pieces to work in (column sides, etc.)
Finally, the core was made with .050″ laminate for the base and roof with 1×2 pvc “wood” for side bracing. The sides are .060″ styrene to which I added styrene strips for the columns. I’ve uploaded the images I used in the Photo Wallpaper section of the Help Section.
Scene Composition
Scene composition, more than any other factor, telegraphs to the eye whether our work is believable or not. It matters more than detail, more than construction neatness, and more than prototypical accuracy. For our purposes, I’ll define scene composition as the elements we choose to incorporate, their size, shape, relative position, and spacing. Since composition carries the lion’s share of the weight, it makes sense that it carry a proportionate amount of our attention.
For the proto-freelancer, which to some extent we all are, it becomes an exercise in threading a needle. We want to select elements that strike a balance between interesting focal points and non-descript “frames” that don’t distract from the central viewing subject. If all of the subjects are boring it’s like looking at a gray screen. If all of the subjects are “interesting” they compete with one another, the scene looks like a circus, and believability is compromised. To start, ALL of the elements should be representative of the region are modeling. Next, select elements so that you have roughly one “interesting” focal point balanced by three or four non-descript “boring” framing elements. With this balance, the eye is drawn to the focal point and not distracted by competing structures or scenery.
Put into practice, here’s how I composed the scene you see as you walk into the layout room. May-Vern Liquor is the focal point. The art deco appearance is interesting, the name gives a regional stamp, and yet it’s not so large as to be in your face. District Blvd. runs diagonally across the viewing area to break up the ninety-degree planes. May-Vern’s diagonal shape dovetails into the diagonal corner of District Blvd. With the centerpiece fixed, the next step is to frame it in such a way that the adjacent element isn’t a distraction. We want something that fits with the region but isn’t too over the top.
My original candidate for the framing structure was the art deco building at 4330 District Blvd (left). After thinking about it, this building was just a little too interesting and as such would distract the eye from the focal point. A little digging around turned up the low-key faded cream and rose garage on Fruitland Avenue (right). The garage has a lot of surface texture and subtle coloring interest but isn’t over the top visually.
The palms were placed to provide a visual stamp but oriented to the right of May-Vern, not directly behind it, again to provide a frame.
Background structures can be dicey and need to be handled carefully. Any depth at all you that you can squeeze in will help and the lower the height, the better. If you go more than one story tall, then you run into a transition problem where the edge of the background structure touches the backdrop.
Vertical elements such as poles create much more “pop” than you would think but again, they needed to be handled carefully. Rather than going with the prototypical reddish brown of an actual pole I painted the poles Model Master US Army Helo drab to subdue them slightly. It’s also important that poles be neatly constructed, aligned perfectly vertical, not spaced too closely together, and modeled without wires (because wires don’t scale down). Getting the correct pole and cross-arm thickness is important as well. The shorter pole next to the signal box is a little too thick and will be replaced with something thinner.
District Blvd. Feb. 26
The latest work has centered on the crossing signals and light posts along District Blvd.
Standing in District Blvd. facing southwest.
Facing southeast down District Blvd. The crossing signals are Details West, I took the cobra light heads off of Walthers street lights, airbrushed them a light gray and then mounted them to skewers painted Model Master US Army Helo Drab.
Here’s a close up of the crossing signal. I added the extra and distinctive LAJ head from extra parts in the Details West kit. The panel box is a folded photograph of the prototype.