Grampy, thank you for the information. If you are using app-priority, then you must also use a tri-pod. Correct? I'm gonna do a little experiment with my camera. I've never used any of the priority settings with my digital camera. Only with my trusty old 35mm.
Well, that is a heck of a picture for focus. COverton's is like that, too. You guys know something I don't know about this. I thought they were Helicon Focus pictures.
Fellas, thanks. :tb-biggrin: The secret is controlled light (you can get more or shut some off, depending on what you need, and that goes by experimenting with each composition...it's a pain, but it works if you want good shots!) In controlling the light (mostly just getting lots of it on the subject, and keeping it all coming from the same parallel direction if possible so that you don't see mulitple shadows) you also control the shutter speed. Your camera shutter speed should be controllable in the M mode for manual. Aperture Priority allows you to adjust the iris, or the pupil, by widening and narrowing it. The secret to good and great depth of focus is this: Stop your iris down to as narrow as you can get it. With most point and shoot cameras, that is about F-8. (Get into your manual and find out how to change your F-ratio...this is absolutely critical...otherwise forget depth of focus...not gonna happen for you.) You want the highest engineered into your camera's optical system. The smaller the diamater of the light cone entering the iris, the longer the F-ratio, and that merely means you have more light of mixed frequencies, which the lens must struggle to bring to the same plane of focus as the others, falling close or very close to the same plane. As you lengthen the F-ratio, the reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, and violets get bent different ways so that they actually all make a less fuzzy picture. A tripod is very important if your camera must be suspended off the bench. As you stop down the iris, you admit much less light in a given exposure time. So use a tripod to steady the camera. Handheld images in stopped down cameras are very blurry because you shake, and the shutter is open longer in order to get sufficient light falling on the detector CCD to make a decent image. If you really have to use the bench because of angles and placement of the object being imaged, use an unopened bag of ground foam, or a small bean bag. Prop the camera up on it, take some images, fool with how the camera sits on the bag, change your camera settings....I go back and forth from the layout to the computer to download the latest batch of five or seven shots about 10 times per imaging session. I eventually settle on one or two shots from about 70! Your own experience is not necessarliy going to mirror mine...you may be more adept generally and only need to take maybe 10-15 images to find one that really pops for you. :tb-biggrin: Finally, if you don't alread know how to do it, get to know how to use your shutter delay timer. If you use a bean bag or something like it, the camera will settle for a bit. Alllow for it to settle and get still, and then the shutter should trip for a nicle crisp shot. I use the 10 second delay, finding it plenty to let the camera slow to almost no shifting at all. As it moves, the image moves across the detector CCD at the plane of focus....more blurring! So let the camera settle for 8 seconds.
I had to do some repairs at my Naumburg module. Two gates from the enginehouse had to glued to their hinges. So I took the opportunity to take a picture. This is my engine type ELNA at the engine facility in Naumburg . I've built this module about 20 years ago. Wolfgang
Thanks, Flash. The only thing I would add to Crandells excellent advice, is I manually focused on the 2nd loco, then took the picture, and experiment with the settings till you get the results you're looking for. DJ.
What a wonderful steam locomotive that must be, Wolfgang. I am guessing Marklin, possibly Roco, and it looks to be a tank-type engine, although I can't see a noticeable tank draped around the boiler. I'll bet it moves and sounds like a Swiss watch...?
No, this is not a Marklin. This was a Weinert kit. Go to the link and you see how I built it. Yes, it runs like a Swiss watch. Here's a link to a video [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0IGW1-kFE"]YouTube- Helau-Treffen Teil 2[/ame] I made the video at a FREMO meeting. Wolfgang
Eugene, great photos, and great to see you here on Trainboard. I remember visiting with you and Daniel and Lucien and Stefan in Rodgau in Oct 2007 - always will be one of the highlights of my model railroading life.
Black Hills and Western - Wayne Hammelman - H0 Scale Yesterday, we had a layout open house at Wayne Hammelman's H0 scale Black Hills and Western Railroad. I have not seen it before, but it is a very nice mostly cantenary layout. You never know what you will see. This was one of the most unusual things I have seen. How do you like these buses? Not bad...a little rough maybe. Another bus. I don't know what type this might be. They are certainly passable. Wayne said he found them at a train show somewhere. How about this...both of these pictured are made of a manila paper envelope! That's right. Check the wheels. The bumper looks like an Acco paper fastener. I couldn't believe it. Seems silly to whine when we don't have some type of car with enough detail. This guy just took care of that and made his own. Very nice hard-core modeling. I have no idea how old these are. Here is another. This bus is a plaster casting. Solid plaster and very heavy. Pretty neat. Wayne has a wonderful passenger terminal and freight house. I'll try to get those pictures up, too.
More renumbering work for me today. This brings the days total to 7. Who can forget the GEU30M645. And the EMD SD27J.
I FINALLY was able to spend some time on the layout today, seems like October just slipped away. I ballasted a short section of track, and planted some furnace-filter pine trees:
I love the colors your layout has Tracy! That second shot, with the campers up high, is just begging to be entered here.
Thanks. I've been experimenting with different exposures and such on my camera (learning something new!), and I've found that changing the ISO really makes the colors pop. I took a couple of minutes before work this morning to take a different picture for the "vantage point" entry.
