Question for Joe Fugate

[Anonymous]

Hey Joe, I have a question to ask you.

I have been looking at pics of your layout in Model Railroader, Here on the Forum, and on your website. I have to ask, What do you do to light your scenes? Its phenominal. I am often having to check and make sure I see something that gives it away as a model becasue alot of your shots look like your photographing the prototype. A great model is a great model, but its lighting that makes it look real, how do you do it?

[jfugate]

Grayhound:

I'm assuming you are referring to photos like this one:



First off, you need a good camera. This photo was taken with a top end 6.3 megapixel digital Canon EOS 10D. I mount the camera on a tripod, use a really slow speed (like 100 ISO) to get optimum crispness, then stop the lense all the way down to get maximum depth of field.

With a lense stopped all the way down like this, you either need lots of light or long exposure times. Believe it or not, the photo above was taken using the 25 watt and 15 watt incandescent layout lighting, with a really long exposure (something like 30 seconds).

The other thing that helps a lot, I believe, is the way I paint my layout backdrop. I use a very light shade of blue, and I use an airbrush with thinned white acrylic paint (made for airbrushing ... you can get it at better art supply stores) and spray the horizon white. I feather it up to fade into the blue so the sky appears to get lighter at the horizon.

Dark backgrounds are a dead giveaway that a model photo is of a model. By using very light blue feathering to white on the horizon, the layout looks more "out of doors" under our weaker artifical light, and this is even more true for the camera.

[lupo]

Joe,
Thanks for sharing that inside information with us, I agree with James, your pictures have very realistic lighting and atmosphere!

BTW: are there any books or MR articles with tips how to make high quality Model railroad pictures ?

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

BTW: are there any books or MR articles with tips how to make high quality Model railroad pictures ?

Sure ... a search of the model railroad publications index here on Trains.com shows these two recent articles:

"Photography 101"
Model Railroader, September 2002, page 96.

"Digital photography for model railroaders"
Railroad Model Craftsman, April 2003, page 73.

Searching the index shows there are articles going all the way back into the 1930s on this subject, so there's *lots of material* to draw from if you would like to know more.

[Anonymous]

Hi Joe,

Yes the pic like the one you posted is like the one have been seeing. Thanks for sharing your insights and how to achieve good results. I have a question though, will this transfer over to regular film cameras as well. I am of the old fashioned sort and havn't glomed on to a digital camera yet.

James

[jfugate]

James:

Yes, it should translate over pretty well ... the only thing extra you will have to do is use tungsten color-balanced film if you are taking slides. Otherwise, you will get rather orange-looking images from the incandescent light.

All the other advice about ISO, depth-of-field, and exposure times ... and using a good camera all applies to film as well.

[Anonymous]

Ok. Thank you. Your willingness to contribute information is greatly appreciated.

James

[lupo]

[tup][ditto]
thanks Joe!