Weekend photo fun - 24-27 Feb

[wm3798]

Last post for my weekend...  A few more lights and a bit more sidewalk for Greenwood.  This little stretch just before the helix down into west staging is serving as my test bed for structure lighting as I begin to plan out Cumberland. 



I reshot this using the Aperture Priority setting, stopping it down to 8.0 with a .3/sec. exposure.  The blue's still a little bright, but it looks less like there's a nuclear reaction going on upstairs.  Also, notice that I added lighting to the building next door.



I used more subdued LED's in this one.  I think the two main interior lights are on boards from Life Like diesels... they used a nice dull not quite yellow color.  The porch light is a 1.8 mm white LED, I dulled it down with the orange Sharpie trick, then carved a blob of dried hot glue into a small globe.  The street light is a yellow 1.8mm LED, which I sanded smooth and painted the top of it black, and then silver.  The leads go through the wall of the building where they are wired into the building system.  I used some old telegraph poles leftover from the Heljan kits I used for the paper mill to "hold them up".

Here's the updated scene with some daylight on it...


Note that I was able to do the "dual" dormers of the prototype.



... and enjoyed adding a few subtle details...

I'll be adding a couple of more buildings to the scene this week, then starting on the flats for the west end of Ridgely.  Eventually I'll be adding a permanent light circuit for this end of the layout.  I did a couple of other buildings for North Junction, but Andy decided he wanted to go to bed early, so he threw me out before I could shoot pictures.  :(

Lee

[wm3798]

It's getting late... How about a night cap?

Looks like Officer O' Leary has his watchful eye on some Rail-B-Q merry makers...

Lee

[Rdrr]

Mister Beasley

What a great notion to include an old canal site. I've poked around a lot of old canal sites in New England and New York and you have captured the feeling quite well.

[MisterBeasley]

I've been working on Mooseport, the section of my Moose Bay layout where the carfloats come in.  In the past, it was a mill area,  with an old canal providing water to power the mill.  That building no longer uses water power, but the canal remains.  A bridge beyond the mill crosses over, and you can see a tank car being pushed along to the carfloat.

It's one of those work-in-progress shots.  The canal is dry, and will be until I pour some Envirotex into it.  The canal banks need some scenic work too, and I've already got a shopping cart, an old bicycle and some tires to toss into the canal to make it look even more run down.

[james saunders]

Quiet weekend for WPF...

More progress on the bridge extension...

Rough yard layout

And the extension to accommodate longer trains... this may end up being a 3 track 15' extension

(shhh)

I just need to get some foam to shape some hills and the valley into where the river will be.

 

 

 

[Anonymous]

Got my mini-modular layout put up on the shelf now, ready to add more modules:

Here is JNR class C 62 2 "Tsubame" crossing the bridge neat Kibune-guchi Falls:

[ngartshore350]

Ah the weekend... Just some progress shots of a Kato model I am trying to turn into the dynamic duo that Kato decided not to produce. Nigel

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Better not let this get too close to your beautiful locos. I hear rust can jump!

[james saunders]

Excellent how to there Mark.

 

I've begun building my little 'river' module. It's 2' x 1' 6"  In the photos you can see, I built a box out of pine on legs which will form the base and another box which will be fixed on top which I will cut away to form the river cutting. 

 

 

I'm yet to decide if this will be the final design. Extruded foam is VERY difficult to get hold of here in Brisbane, but if I do go with the above design I will cut the MDF in two with the jig saw and I will probably go with expanded foam to fill in the banks and coat it with plaster dipped bandage.

Here is another top shot with my reconfigured track plan. For bridges I plan to have a two track bridge in the back ground and a single track bridge in the foreground.

 

I will hopefully have some more progress tomorrow.

[Mark Watson]

Motley

Mark Wilson, those are outstanding photos! How did you get the sunlight effect in the first photo?

Thanks Motely.  Just happens I posted a quick run through in another forum, so I'll share here too.

Here's a quick run through of a recent photo I took:



This photo has many features I am pleased with, but I am most pleased with the back lighting of the three center trees. I've been asked a few times how I achieved this shot, so here's a quick break down. The set up is quite simple, and here it is:

The yellow stand is a halogen work light (the sources out of view so I don't get a flare.) You can see its position relative to the scene and my camera. The black card just in front of the camera is "flagging the lens", or blocking light from the source from shining directly on the lens. The two white cards are used to bounce light back into the shadows of the scene. In the next photo, I dropped the right bounce card to show how much darker the shadows would have been.


Notice how dark the right corner of the module is in this one.


That's it for the set up. Having set the white balance using the wall, I already know my color is correct. Since I'm concerned with depth of field, I want a small aperture (large f number). I went with f/22, which also means I'll need a slower shutter speed in order to let in more light, but that's no problem because I have a tripod. I also want to keep my ISO "sensor speed" to a low number. The lower the number, the slower the sensor is, however the better quality of the photo. Again, since I'm using a tripod, I can expose for as long as necessary.


Here is the In-Camera result. f/22, 1sec. exposure ISO-200. Notice that the histogram on the bottom left. That is a bar graph showing the number of pixels at a specific value. On the graph, left is black, right is white. The taller the bar, the more pixels within the image are that value. This photo has a particularly good range of value but don't be concerned if less than half of the graph shows value. The biggest thing to watch for is spikes on the far left or right. You can see I have a small spike on the right, however the intention of this photo is to be brightly back-lit, so I'm ok with that. One thing to do here is to "bracket" your exposures. Since my priority is aperture and resolution, I would take a photo with 1.2", 1.5", .8" and .6". This way, if I ultimately decide this photo is too bright, I have a less bright back up, or if its too dark, I have a more brighter backup. Anyways, this one will do.



The next photo is the "Processed Raw". For the beginner, just shoot as .jpgs and don't bother with processing RAW until you master the shooting techniques. Trying to learn shooting techniques AND processing techniques at once will create many, many, many, many bad shooting habits. The most infamous "I'll fix that in Photoshop". It is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, better to have something done in-camera.
Nonetheless, for those interested, I processed this Raw by adjusting for lens distortion and I bumped saturation a touch.


Next is the clean-up. I didn't want the light stand in the photo, and you can see I caught the corner of my lens flag in the frame too. I also removed the safety bumper at the end of the track, straightened the tree trunk that was bothering me on the right side and made sure the pine on the left looked "planted".



For this photo, I wanted to see the sunlight bursting through the forest. To achieve that, I did this. I streaked white over black, then using the engine and trees as guides, erased that streak away for objects closer to the camera. This is called a depth map since it is used for depth effects.



Above was the hard part, the easy part is simply setting that black and white image to "Screen" a type of blending mode in which black becomes transparent and white is blended into the image. Now I effectively have the "god rays" of the sun through the trees.



And the final step is to once again adjust the color. While we know the color in the above image is correct, we also know that artistically sunlight is yellow. If you compare the above and below, the above color begins to looks odd, doesn't it! In addition to the yellow of the sun, I added a bit more saturation and a touch of green as would be reflected from the trees. These subtle color adjustments also make the scene look larger in scale don't ya think?



And there ya have it.

[twhite]

Great photos, everyone, as usual.

I don't know whether or not you'd classify this as "Photo Fun", but here's a little wild-life drama going on at Yuba Pass.  Woodland Scenics finally came out with mountain lions, so I thought I'd put one to use.  And no, in case you're wondering, the doe escaped.  It's back to hunting rabbits for Momcat.

Tom

[jacon12]

 

Thanks Mark for the link.  I really got a chuckle out of his lack or preparation for the video, it looks like the way I would do it!

Nevertheless, he got the message across in what I consider an entertaining way!

Jarrell

Mark Watson

 

jacon12:

 

Fine looking layout and photography, Mark.  Did you make the evergreen trees and if so... how?

Thanks,

Jarrell

 

 

Thanks Jarrell,

I believe the technique is commonly referred to as the "Joe Fugate Method".  I more or less followed this video from a guy in BC. Instead of furnace filters, I used scotch-brite pads.

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-Gwgae6oJk8&rel=1" mce_src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-Gwgae6oJk8&amp;rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed>

'); // -->

 

[Mark Watson]

jacon12

Fine looking layout and photography, Mark.  Did you make the evergreen trees and if so... how?

Thanks,

Jarrell

Thanks Jarrell,

I believe the technique is commonly referred to as the "Joe Fugate Method".  I more or less followed this video from a guy in BC. Instead of furnace filters, I used scotch-brite pads.

watch?v= Gwgae6oJk8

[C&O Fan]

I' ve been working on my web site "The C&O New River Sub Division"

here's a preview

http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/

 

 

[G Paine]

Motley

Last weekend of the summer? Oh man you guys down under are all upside down. LOL

I guess it depends on your perspective; out that way, they sell a world map with the south pole at the top. They considder it the correct view.

[wedudler]

I'm still busy with my LaBelle RPO kit,    H0n3 of course.

Wolfgang

[EmpireStateJR]

Great modeling and photos by everyone.  I've been a long time follower and these photos are my first contribution to W.P.F.

John R

 The below are photos of the shelf portion of my basement layout. that is still under construction.

 

 

 

 

[superbe]

It's lunch time @ New World Pasta

 

Bob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My recently rebuilt U25C. Rivarossi body on Athearn blue box SD45 frame.

[Grampys Trains]

Thanks, Brunton, glad you liked it. DJ.

[Pruitt]

Hey Grampy!

I just "stole" your photo for my desktop. What a great image!!

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Very groovy photos & modeling!
Thanks, all, for sharing.

A sunny day in N scale Alameda:

Enjoy the weekend!

[secondhandmodeler]

[mountaingoatgreg]

I have been working on a model of gas station and have been adding details to the interior. I have pretty much finished up the retail area and have now turned my focus to the garage area. I still have a bunch of stuff to build and parts to paint but it is moving right along.

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

We had a fast start this for WPF. Great pictures, everybody!

Here is a photo of a speeding westbound NP passenger train as the engineer is trying to get his late train back on schedule. The speed of the train caused it to look blurred in the photo.

 

[Robby P.]

 Great pictures everybody!!

  Here's my contribution.

  Before:

 

 

  After:

 

 

[jacon12]

 

Fine looking layout and photography, Mark.  Did you make the evergreen trees and if so... how?

Thanks,

Jarrell

Mark Watson

Well ya can't object to starting the weekend early. :)

Here's a few photos from my new layout modules. 

Kato C44-9W with MT Pepsi cars.

Kato Mikado + GHQ Burlington O-4 kit.

Atlas GP-38s (and another MT Pepsi car).

[dti406]

After a couple of weeks of working on locomotives I have finished these freight cars this week.



This is a Branchline #1000A 50' SD Boxcar, built from the kit minus the roofwalk and lowered the ladders in all but the breakwheel area.  Lettered with Mark Vaughn decals, note that the P&E shops applied the extended PC herald and was one of the only shops to use that herald.



This is a CB&T 40' 6 Panel 1944 AAR Boxcar Kit.  Lettered with Champ decals.  All of the 1944 AAR Boxcars built for the ATSF were 6 panel cars so the Athearn or any other 40' car would not be appropriate for this class of car.



This is a Robbins Rails PS1 Boxcar with the DW 10' PS Door substituted for the kit door.  Lettered with Microscale Decals.  The Reading PS1 Boxcars were the last interior post boxcars built by Pullman Standard, after that all their 50' boxcars were exterior post.

Thanks for looking! 

 

Rick J

[Grampys Trains]

Excellent early start this week.

Morning shot of the yard. DJ.