Adding a "cool" industry to your layout...
#16
McGillicutty Wrote:Very nice as usual Doc. Your backdrops remind me of the grey drab winter skies I remember from when I used to live near the lake in Toledo years ago. Do you have any plans to add anything more to them or are they in their finished state?

The background in the first four photos is pretty-well it, although I may eventually add some clouds. The view is towards Lake Erie, which is "nearby", so there's not too much else that would be visible.
The other areas may get some clouds as well, and, in the last picture, I experimented with a bit of "applied" background scenery (foam on Masonite). There are areas where I'll have to paint a backdrop, too, but those will most likely be low wooded hills and open fields.

Wayne
Reply
#17
Wayne,

Always enjoy your posts, excellent modeling and photography as usual..Just wondering, when you shoot your pics do you use additional lighting or just room lights? Everything always looks so well lit.

Bruce
Reply
#18
Thanks for the kind words, Bruce.

The room is fairly well-lit, with 16 4' double tube fluorescent fixtures, and the camera makes up for any deficiencies. It also corrects for the colour temperature of the lighting, eliminating the usual fluorescent green glow. When I get the second level of the layout installed, I'll be adding another 8 to 10 similar fixtures, mostly below the new benchwork to illuminate the lower level. One of the problems with fluorescent lighting is that is doesn't give distinct shadows - with the parts of the layout where the viewer is looking south, this is a good thing, as otherwise the trains would be viewed from the shaded side. For other areas, I have used a hand-held trouble light to represent the sun, which yields more distinct shadows. However, it also confuses the camera's ability to differentiate between the fluorescent and incandescent light. Here's an example, shot by Mister Nutbar (the train is southbound, so this must be an early-morning shot - the quality of the light looks more "morning" or "evening" than "midday", to me.
[Image: 4193138.jpg]

I like this shot, but the light is coming from behind and slightly right of the camera - in this view, that makes it from the north-west . Eek
[Image: 4193063.jpg]

The light quality here looks more "midday" to me, but again, it's from the north-west.
[Image: 4193077.jpg]

This one catches some sharper shadows, especially of the pole and the crossing tower, and, as the light is out of the east, I'd guess it to be sometime between 8:00AM and 10:30AM.
[Image: 4193131.jpg]

Of course, to simply show a well-lit picture, all of these compass directions are meaningless to a viewer - if I'm taking photos on my own, I seldom bother with the extra lighting, as it often needs to be repositioned for each shot.

Wayne
Reply
#19
Thanks for re-posting this, Doc. I had forgotten about the ice only reefers. That gives me another reason to buy more reefers Goldth
This time I book marked it.

Loren
I got my first train when I was three,
put a hundred thousand miles on my knees.
Reply
#20
Wayne,

Thanks for taking the time to explain, and again great modeling and photography.

Bruce
Reply
#21
Photos restored to this thread.

Wayne
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)