Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

[Nilmadic]

Any tips on how to blend a real background better with the module while shooting appreciated.
Especially how to make the distant hills more distant without backing up

A basic understanding of photography will help with the focus stacking.

While it is good to be able to control the focus manually, the aperture has a more profound effect on the depth of field in your shots. Shooting at an low aperture like f/1.4 or f/1.8 will give a very shallow depth of field fore and aft of the focal point in the image. An aperture such as f/22 will give you far greater clarity through the focal range of the image. Zooming in on a subject, with a very low aperture setting (large iris opening) will give you the softest and shallowest depth of field.

This could help to bring the background out of focus in your photos.

Also like you stated already, tilting the module at an angle to avoid the close foreground or elevating the module and shooting from a low angle can additionally help to eliminate foreground.

Oh, and I quit too.

[Nilmadic]

Also, check these out. Jimmo may have the perfect start for a trailer for the crawler. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Willmodels-Truck-Mounted-Tank-2-/170796839375?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item27c448f1cf

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thank for the tips and kind words.
The California sun does make everything look a bit more magical (it better, as that's where most of our taxes go)
And still getting the hang of this newfangled photography thing, especially outdoors.

A big issue with that photo shoot was just in the location:



Given the downward slope of the fire trail, it was very difficult to get the module to block out the closest ridge (yellow bar).
And the photos that did "work" even clipped out the middle ridge (blue line) so that just the far hills (red arrow) appeared in the photo behind the module.

Lighting was also an issue: the only view at this location is looking south, so lots of trains-in-shadows shots.
I was shooting at ISO 100.  Should have tried some 400 just for comparision.

As I couldn't really tip the module towards the camera, it was a constant battle between getting low enough to include only the far hills and high enough to get some details on the module, as you can see with these two shots:





Getting rid of more of the "near" oversized background grass results in losing a lot of the cows and D-2 details.

Some of that will improve when I start focus stacking:
Finally read the manual and figured out how to turn off auto focus, so we'll see how the next photo shoot goes.
A shot like this works out all right in terms of background, but could really benefit from a greater depth of field, especially close to the camera:



So I'll be playing around with CombineZP in the future.
But first I have a couple of clinics to prepare  for the NMRA/PCR Iron Horse Express convention in about three weeks, as well as finish 3-4 structures and a lot of trees for the Wye Knot module.

Have a groovy weekend and thanks for looking.

[Dave Schneider]

I really like this last photo with the hoppers. Excellent!

Best wishes, Dave

[dnhouston]

I'd love to see that hopper shot done again after you get down focus stacking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Just installed the Eggel River Mining Co. Freight & Store on the Wye Knot module:





Built from parts of a Bar Mills "The One" kit and scratched the rest.
And the back side, which no one will see (but I'm still going to install a wooden staircase, dirt tracks, people, etc.):



And my first attempt focus stacking:



Still got a long way to go, but this focus stacking thing is pretty cool.

Thanks for looking.

[Nilmadic]

Spertrees?

[M.C. Fujiwara]

A few, just like the Sierra Nevada foothills have.
Need to make more with a darker foliage for variety.

And many, many more pine trees 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

A hot, sunny spring day up in the Sierra Nevada when the Ten Wheeler rolls the supplies into the Eggel River Mining Co. Freighthouse and Store:



Focus stacking + sunilight = photo fun:





Helicon rocks.
Now just have to figure out how to use all of it's nifty features 
Happy St. Paddy's Day

[M.C. Fujiwara]

And the award for the Crappiest Turnout Control (CTC) goes to....



Decided to use the best room in the out of the house to cover the one slide switch on the Wye Knot module.
(Cross-support directly under throwbar)
The outhouse has styrene shims inside to snug-fit the slideswitch knob and then is CA'ed to a grey-painted styrene "plate" that slides with it over the switch top.
With some weathering and more ground cover it shouldn't look too much like "The Throne"
(Just like "Thrown")

Works pretty well, though I pity the dude inside when a train is switching the siding 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

This past week I've been building a set of shacks for the Company Town, which means another opportunity to try out the focus stacking in the sunshine:





Really need some peoples but really don't want to pony up the money for WS figures.
Guess I'll have to find the unpainted bulk pack and get painting.

It was so hot today out in the sunshine that it started warping the tarpaper roof:



So will need to fix that.

Since I was scratchin' with styrene, thought I'd make a couple videos while I was at it.

Here's the 5-minute Abridged version:

And if you're just starting out scratchbuilding with styrene, there's a two-part step-by-tippy-toe-step tutorial on my website:
http://www.yardgoatlayoutdesign.com/28.html

And now back to March Madness.
Go Bruins.

Thanks for looking.

[Nilmadic]

Nice Video. The horses look awesome!! What era vehicles will fit in this scene?

[M.C. Fujiwara]

What era vehicles will fit in this scene?

Yours 

[Chris333]

The grass is always greener around the turnout throw.   

[M.C. Fujiwara]

The grass is always greener around the turnout throw.   

Yes, Free-moN is such "fertile" ground 

So I ripped off the roof of the Company freight & store & am in the process of redoing it.
Remember this isn't my module and after early April it'll go "home" so I don't want anything that's fussy or fuzzy or flakey for the dude.

Started experimenting with adding bark / trunk to my floral-wire twirled trees:



Dipping the trunks in stucco paste seems to do the trick by adding texture and thickness:



And on the module:





Looks moocho better than just the thin twisted wire, so methinks I'll be doing this with all foreground trees from now on.

So basically done with the Company Town module (except for the roof issue), now moving on to the mine tipple module.
(Only have enough room to work on one module at a time, so working through them in order)

Finally installed the Eggel River Mining Co. office I built last week:



Added some trees and so another opportunity to stack some foci:



Need many more trees, so will be twisting wire & twine today in between March Madness (Go UCLA!) and World Cup qualifying matches (Go USA!).

Thanks for looking.