Two photo's of a Cottonbelt FT ABBA unit taken with a Nikon D-50 using the Helicon Focus Software program. Stay cool and run steam......
I've been playing with the Whitbalance settigs on my camera. I may not be able to fiddle with too many settings on the thing. But I think it's a definite improvement. I didn't tweak these at all. Hi Res Here Hi Res here Hi Res here Hi Res here Of course this means I can only take pictures in my garage, but what the heck! Still not bad for cheap plastic bodieg camera...
Just bought a Digital Camera today and shot this. 807 East. Southern Alberta Rail's hot Intermodal along Island Lake. grant [ January 26, 2006, 07:52 PM: Message edited by: grant-sar ]
Can someone tell me what's wrong with this image? I''m having real trouble with model railroad editors.
Pete: The only possible thing I see on my screen is the track in the lower left corner. Is it ballasted and not loose? I am not saying that it is not complete; just looks like it might not be finished in the picture. Did the editor say what was wrong? How about weathering the engines? I certainly like the low angle and the scenery. OTOH...I am getting my layout ready for an open house next weekend, so not much time for me. One of the things I did discover was using the remainder of Colonel's tree material to make grass. I used Rit dye to color the natural rope material and then unraveled it. It is planted using white glue. So far, I only have the dark brown color, but I will get some more greens today. (I hope to get the Rit Dye at Michael's.) The grass in this picture is both Woodland Senics and home made. More colors...all jute. Tom Hynds: Nice speeder shed. Did you scratchbuild it? BTW, what scale are you modeling? Thanks. [ January 22, 2006, 07:41 AM: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Pete, I would never have looked for issues but since you asked please don’t take offence. To me – and we all know how bad my vision is: The foreground appears blurry The shadows of the shed and the turntable do not match a shadow in the bottom left area of the picture. There is not much ballast around the ties – I don’t know if that is important Skyscraper in the background is incongruous with the mountains – I feel it should be a 1/5th that size. It also grabs the eye away from the scene. To the left and beyond the New Haven loco is a black tender. Its color due to a lack of contrast prevents the detail of the front end of the New Haven from standing out. I can barely make out the couple standing in the bottom center. That said, here is the sum total of my modeling and photographic skills: [ January 21, 2006, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: Grey One ]
In addition to what Steve and Flash pointed out, the track on the lower left looks somehow distorted. Wide angle lense will sometimes cause weird stuff like that. I usually have other issues with wide angle. In my image above everything like buildings and power poles seem to lean to the middle of the top of the image.
Well lets see, coal spill is out of scale, yard gravel should be cinders or dark grey/black it's to clean for steam era, the first lead in track does not have enough straight tangent. And the modern building way in the back is way out of era. No ash pit. No short dead in stubs for holding area. The joining of the 2 roundhouses are not even. Even tho they are the same kits.
Flash, Thanks - I'm model in "N"Scale. (Funny - I thought you knew that). No, the shed isn't scratchbuilt. (Can I take that as a compliment?) Recently tried some weathering experiments on it, though. I've had that shed for a lotta years...It's an old Micro-Engineering kit. I don't know if they still make it. OTOH - looks like I need to trim that coarse ground foam a bit. And I'm not sure if everthing is where it's supposed to be yet in that scene. Let's call it a work in progress. Nice pics one and all!
Pete: You asked for what happened above. Life on a forum is so ......... BTW, I like the photo. Stay cool and run steam.....
Whoa! I'm not disturbed at all! I think these criticisms are exactly what I wanted. Actually I'm pleased: it tells me what I need to do. I'm really just a modeler, not a model railroader. I can take these comments, look at this scene and the rest of this rather large road, and start correcting things. For me, this has been a great, great post. I also have to say that I never submitted this image to a model railroad magazine editor. I thought that if I asked "What's wrong with this photo?" I would get a few polite replies. So, basically, I asked the forum to put on their "editor" hats--and they did. Folks, I'm new to this model photography, so I need help! Put me out in brown bear country in Alaska, I can hold my own. Put me in a studio, and I'm completely lost! For me, this is fun. I thank you all for your unvarnished comments. Believe me, I'm not upset, nor deflated, nor hurt. This is all a process for me--it's a hobby, for heaven's sake. Again, thanks all--and don't worry that I'm offended. I'm not--I've been doing this stuff since 1967.
I can also point to at least eleven places on the cover of NSR (Jan/Feb) where Helicon didn't work exactly right! But who cares? It's a magnificent image. We are all trying to do better in our modeling and modeling photography. Fothergill--look at my mug: how could I lead with anything other than my chin?
Pete: No photo is perfect and it's purely subjective to one who views it. Stay cool and run steam.....
This week I got another stray roll of film from summer vacation processed. This is almost like Christmas, I never know what I'm gonna find! Here are a few highlights from the Arizona Railway Museum
Well, sorta figured you would take in in such a vein but I have been known to make a few blunders (social and otherwise). I'll be happy to help any time. By the way, just looking at it was not enough. I find that if I put a picture of any type (including that of a human), into a "negative" or "greyscale" that I can see things my eyes would otherwise miiss. The reason is that the brain "groks" or accepts things in color and extrapolates what is not clear. This is why we can read fonts smaller than we can actualy make out clearly. Alter these pictures in some way such as a negative or even just a grey scale and our brain no longer has a referance point to estrapolate from. The result is a much "clearer" if you will view of the image. You may think this odd coming from a visualy impaired person but actualy it is because of my vision that I started doing this long ago and realized I saw things others were missing. Hope this helps.
