N&W Y6b 2196 through mountains

Chris,

 

the he hillside is sublime!

Ye! great scenery and great pic.   Thanks   cTr...(Choose the Right)

that's terrific Chris.

 

Great scenery and photography as always, Chris! 

Very nice shot.

I got a pretty good snapshot of the Y6b.

 

 

Chris, I think that is an understatement!!! It passes for "real."

 

Malcolm

Chris, it really looks life like against that scenic background of the mountain.
Ray.

Wow - that hillside (and Y6b) look phenomenal!  If it weren't for the ground throw, that scene would be indistinguishable from reality. 

Great photo, that had me do a double take.

Oh yeah!!!

Love your trackside photo !

That's print quality right there!

You know it Santiago!

You got it right!

Guys, thanks for the comments. I am holding back a number of good photo compositions for an article, hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the year.

If these are the not so good ones you need to post the good ones when the article is out. It looks great!

Nice job... Can you zoom out a bit on the next pic?

Very cool....... 

Gary

• Cheers from The

Wow. I'm deeply impressed.
That is some great model work and photography!

Thanks p51, Gary, J Daddy, Winston.

 

It is not that I think this isn't as good of a photo, but the compositions I'm holding are more focused on the scenery and layout while this one is more focused on the engine. This way I would not spill too much of the beens about this section of the layout.

It doesn't get any better than a Y6b with a heavy coal drag.

Well maybe a pair of Y's  

Very Nice Photo!!!

as always, outstanding!

Great shot, great locomotive, great scenery. A trifecta.

 

As all have said, great work and looking forward to the article.

One of the keys to this great shot is the lighting. It does not look like indoor lighting.

What did you use?

If you were trying to duplicate Peter Lerro's painting of 2154 (Magnificent Moment), you did a good job.  Here is a cropped version of Peter's painting.

 

http://pdfs.historicrail.com/HR-Winter2010.pdf

Thanks, Guys.

 

Scrapiron,

 

The lighting affect in my basement is a bit different than I've seen for other railroads. I have low ceilings so I had a challenge with the lighting.

 

I sprayed all of the joists and everything above white. Then I hung florescent light fixtures inbetween all of the joists, allot of them on several circuits. Then I put in a drop ceiling, hung somewhat close to the bottom of the joists but with enough room to deal with the panels. The whole ceiling is clear prism tiles to diffuse the light. The bulbs are a combination of Natural light 5000 and Soft light 3000. The whole ceiling pretty much glows like high noon.

 

I haven't used any special postitioned lighting when I've taken photos of the railroad. I like to keep the photo true to what the lighting really is in my basement but I am having some trouble with white balance with the ballast. The camera I use is a little Canon Powershot SD800 from about 8 years ago. I'm thinking about getting a better camera for taking layout shots but right now I'm not sure what I'm after.

 

 

Lehigh,

That is a really neat comparison. I had not seen it before.

Excellent photo Chris. Scrapiron is right, the lighting looks great. Interesting what you did to accomplish this. 

 

Butch

Chris,

Obviously you understand light temperature and the importance of diffusing.

That you have nailed. I suggest you approach the ballast issue from a weathering perspective as opposed to a white balance perspective. I would not change the light temperature nor the diffusion because you have that down very nicely. You could try reflectors to bounce the light around or perhaps some manual form of dimming like an umbrella in certaIn spots. I would darken the ballast selectively to look less uniform. That will fool the eye to convince the observer the light on the ballast is correct. As long as the light on the subject and backgrounds is correct, the eye gets fooled.

 

Kudos.

Scrapiron,

 

I understand what you are saying about weathering the ballast and it is very valid point. I had weathered the ballast on another section of the railroad and the ballast looks good in the photos, but in person it is just a little overweathered for my taste. Some of the ballast on the real railroad gets to a range of incredibly dirty so even if I got to that point it would still be realistic.

 

The ballast in the section in the photo above actually is lightly weathered and the subtlety looks good in person, but it isn't showing in the photo. I think you are right when you say I should not mess with the white balance. I think I can hit this section just a little bit more and still be satisfied with it.

 

Thanks for your input.

Had me fooled for a few sec. Lighting is fantastic.

 

Rich