hello! Just wondering if someone could recommend a camera for taking pictures for photo back drops?
I'm hoping to keep it under $100.00
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale
A camera at that price would be fine for taking photos to post here, but not for photos that would need to be enlarged enough for backdrop use.You might find it more economical to look at commercially available backdrops, though if you need a lot of it, it can still be rather expensive. Depending on the type of scenes you want, you could try painting your own. There are lots of on-line resources to teach you the basics (check out some of the stuff Bob Ross did) and craft-type paints, available at any dollar store, will work just fine.
The easiest backdrop to self-paint is sky, and for that, ordinary interior house paint is probably the most economical choice. I chose a light-ish blue, then had the same colour darkened somewhat, and a third sample darkened even further. Use the lightest version near the horizon, then the medium-dark version and the darkest towards the top, blending the colours together where they meet.
A bit of low detail along the horizon adds some three dimensional effect, and is easy to create...my tree line is cushion foam, painted dark green with some poly-fibre and ground foam added.
Probably not shot from the best angle, the "distant hills" are represented by a sheet of 1/8" Masonite, painted the same dark green, then sprinkled with ground foam while the paint was still wet. I then added a misting of grey primer from a spray can to create a distant "haze"...
In some places, I used background structure flats to hide the horizon line...
In some places, modelled structures and a few homemade trees are enough to take the background (or lack of it) out of being an issue...
...and in an urban area, modelled structures can do the same thing...
Unless your layout is a very narrow shelf, there are plenty of economical ways to make the scenes look deeper. Keep in mind, too, that the trains are the stars of the scene, and help to draw attention away from the background.
Wayne
mammay76 hello! Just wondering if someone could recommend a camera for taking pictures for photo back drops? I'm hoping to keep it under $100.00
For that price you need to look at garage sales or in the classified ads. I have a fairly nice 5 Megapixel Konica Minolta that I found for $20. It is older so it can only use the old fashion, fat 32 bit, 2GB SD cards. It has an optical zoom lens which is far better than digital zoom. It looks like a real camera, not a phone.
Great tips from Wayne.
I think you should be able to find a camera for this purpose. Camera technology is good and affordable now. The main thing to consider is resolution and just about all cameras now have 16MP or higher. There are a lot variables here, but you can pretty easily calculate your needed resolution. Camera specs will tell you the resolution (20 MP for example) but they'll also tell you the two dimensions that produce the 20 MP. Like 5152 x 3864. This means the horizontal aspect of the sensor has 5152 pixels and the vertical aspect had 3684. Multiply those and you get your 20 megapixels. Standard printing resolution for a background would be perfectly acceptable at about 150 pixels per inch (ppi), although honestly you could probably go down to 100 or fewer. Assuming you use the whole photo for the background (and not crop it) the vertical aspect will probably be the most critical. In the example used, the vertical aspect of the sensor has 3864 pixels. Divide that by your 150 ppi requirement and you will see that this 20 MP camera could easily print landscape (horizontal) photos that are 25" tall. If you accept 100 ppi as a your printable resolution, then it will produce a print almost 40" high.
The 20MP example used here is based on the specs of the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W800 which I saw online at B&H for $88. The current Nikon Coolpix A10 or Canon PowerShot Elph $120) would also work. The Nikon is 16MP so based on this I would go with the Sony.
There are other things to consider to ensure you get a clear sharp photo. Use a tripod (this is important - improvise one if you need to). Use the lowest ISO setting (100 or 200). Use the highest quality photo settings. Try not to zoom in too much. If you creep into the "digital zoom" range that just means the camera is cropping your photo to make the subject appear larger which lowers resolution. Make sure you stay within the "optical zoom" range.
My phone is a 16MP camera and I would have no concern blowing up images from it to create a 30" background as long as I followed the above tips.
Carnegie FallsI think you should be able to find a camera for this purpose. Camera technology is good and affordable now....
Wow! I stand corrected on my original statement.
Most, if not all of the pictures included in my previous post were taken on a 2mp Kodak point-and-shoot, which probably cost somewhere close to $100.00 when it was new - I could be wrong, as I got it secondhand.
Carnegie Falls, thanks not only for your kind words, but also for the dissertation on modern cameras (or 'phones) and their capabilities. I found it very informative.
Awesome info guys! Thank you all very much.
I'm seriously considering shifting gears from my current layout I'm building, (Alaska railroad)which has completed 4 foot tall snow covered mountains.
I'm really wanting to model the CSX Boston line, because that's what I grew up watching. I love the class one railroads, and all the mainline action. I operate weekly with a great group of guys, on their layouts.
I thought I was going to be happy by modeling the Alaska Railroad because it's completely different, and I always wanted to model winter.
I came across Jim spavins website, and his minimalist approach. Of course I saw his version of the Boston line In n scale end it got my mind going.
Extremely narrow shelves, all photo backdrops of the actual locations. The main focus of the layout would be mainline running, with interchanges, and a local here in there. Very few structures. Construction would go very rapidly. Not sure though I'm kind of going crazy now! LOL
Thank you very much for your help guys.