You nailed it! Beautiful job.
Mike
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
Thanks All. After an hour of running tonight I'm much happier with it.
Springfield PA
I would be very happy with that. Looks good.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Agreed. Looks much better.
In my humble opinion I think it looks much better. Good job.
John
Couple more:
Well Tonight I finally got around to cutting 11 inches off of the bottom
Here's a few photo's I snapped real quick. No depth of field settings.
Finally decided. The water will have 11 inches cut out hopefully this weekend.
Thanks for the feedback. The pic couldn't be taken from a lower height. It was taken from the railing of the pier which is probably a good 15 feet or higher over the water. The backdrop is removable. It's laid on 1/8 inch pvc sheeting and held in place with a couple of screws on the edges. It's safe from any layout work though.
I've been looking at backdrops myself, and I haven't seen anything that looks close to yours. I guess what they say is true. "If you want something done right, do it yourself."
I agree with cutting the water down considerably. Take the camera and get down to about 6 inches above table level, and photograph some trains running on your layout against the background. I think if you do this you'll see that there is too much water.
Is the whole thing removeable? Since your still actively working on the layout in front of the backdrop, I would keep the backdrop out of harm's way until you've finished the trackwork and scenery. I'd hate to see an errant screwdriver or paintbrush hit such a fine piece of work.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Pretty sure I would remove plenty of it too, but it's your call.
I think the acid test would be taking photos with the camera sat on the rails or at ground level. I'm sure it would look far too high [to me] then. It's not possible for it to be right from every eye level. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.
I'll be tackling a similar thing on my layout.
Looks marvellous though. You've done a great job!
Considering taking off the lower 10 inches of the backdrop to reduce the water size some. Wife wants to leave it alone but the water does look a bit too much.
Medium zoom of the backdrop showing detail. Turned out great. There is a seam to the right that I will try to shrink with a blow dryer.
Backdrop installed. I think the water is a bit high and still might trim it down. I'll let it sit for a few days before deciding.
Here's the wall it will be going on.
Last Night I used PVC cement to join the 2 sections of PVC Sheet and it's ready for my Wife to lay the backdrop this weekend. They're 2 different colors but the price was right (free scraps they had in the shop) The backdrop will be covering them anyhow so no biggie
It was hard to find 10 feet clear to work. Just goes under the 2nd section of the layout but Wife says it'll be ok
If you're having problems with getting buildings in scale you might be too close.
Here is a link to where I got some of the info. I've read the same and more on photography sites.
This site will also print your panorama for a decent price.
http://backdropwarehouse.com/HowWeDoIt.htm
I was a little weary about trying this myself, but I'm getting a new Canon G10 soon, and with your detailed instructions I'm gonna try this. I already have Corel Photo software.
Thanks Blue!
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Thanks for all that info. I think I will go out and take some more photos to see what I can come up with.
Did you have any trouble adjusting the size of the photos to be in scale with your trains? Some I have tried, the barns, trees, phone poles etc. were either too big or too small compared to the train going by. When I got the barn looking good in one spot the phone poles and gas station three feet along the photo were way too big. Any suggestions. Thanks.
Thanks,
The D5000 is a great camera from the reviews I read before picking up my T2i. I did some reading before trying. If you're getting different sizes etc make sure you do the following.
1. Use a tripod to do the pictures. Lock in the vertical movement so it can only move side to side. The tripod and focus are probably the most important parts doing these.
2. Use the landscape mode on the camera. A good camera like yours will take care of the other settings.
3. set your focus once and don't change it while doing the set. You could do a full run with one setting then another run with another setting. I was about 1/2 miles from the other side of the river and set the lens at 35mm. That will make your pic look close to what you see with the naked eye on site.
4. Use the RAW setting on the camera and convert the images to TIFF when you get to the computer. jpg files tend to lose quality every time you edit and save.
5. Set your camera to timer. This allows you to focus and take the camera but the shot doesn't happen for 2-10 seconds. It allows the camera to steady out after pushing the shutter button and make a sharper pic.
6. Start on one side and take the pics. You want about a 1/3rd overlap between pictures so that the software can do a better job. Also make sure you don't have a polarizing lens filter. Those will change the color of the sky different at every angle and doesn't look right.
When you get it back home make sure you have plenty of space on the hard drive. RAW files are huge but once again will give you the best to work with. Also note you will not be able to view the RAW files with picture viewer etc at first. They have to be converted.
Follow the instructions of the software for panoramic pics.
I found that the Stitch program from Canon sucked at best. The reason is it tries to merge the pics in a straight line. You can always see a blur where it did the merge. Photoshop and Photoshop elements makes it seamless. They do it by merging the photos in a random jagged pattern and then blending the colors around the merge. Night and day.
If you have any questions after you take the pics let me know.
Good Luck.
Oh and we were able to score two 3x5 foot sheets of vinyl sheeting today. Just have to glue them together and lay the vinyl. Cant wait to have it up.
Very nice Hamiltnblue. I have been playing around with doing the same thing for a twelve foot long stretch on my layout.
I started by taking photos of my chosen scene and knitting them together with some help. The quality just wasn't there using our 3 year old $300.00 Sony Digital. And then it happened! Santa bought brought my wife my a Nikon D5000 so she could take better photos of all her dogs. Photos are much better. I borrowed it while she was at work one day and YIPPEE! quality at last.
I have a place fairly close by that can print it out like yours. However I am having difficulty getting the scale right. Some spots it appears to large and in others to small. Did you have this problem? If so how did you deal with it? If not, any suggestions. I am no photographer by any means, and have no artistic talent. I managed to get the camera turned on and people say they are very well taken shots. ( Pure luck ) The scale thing though is driving me Batty! Thanks for any help.
That really is terrific, Hamilton.
- Harry
Glad to see the old girl hasn't joined so many of her brethren as razor blades...almost unbelievably, all 4 Iowa-class BBs are still afloat; three as museums and one, the Iowa, still in mothballs.
If you want a better resolution pic you can download the high res version from my photobucket site. The file size is 7.4 meg. It looks great printed out on an inkjet at 8x10.
Thanks, from me, too. I was home ported in Phila. on a Destroyer, when the Jersey was preparing for deployment to Viet Nam. DJ.
Hamltnblue This is what was just to my left while taking the pic. The USS New Jersey
This is what was just to my left while taking the pic. The USS New Jersey
Thank you! I spent the summer of '54 on that great ship!
Thanks, I got it for about $3.50 a square foot. The norm is 6 to 8.
This is what the full print looks like