Camera Practice (second attempt)

[TruckLover]

Hi Guys, just spent some time take some shots from my construction scene on my CAT Rental Module.

Rather then using the auto option like i always have, i decided to go manual. ive been playing around with the settings and such for quite some time now, trying to get more then just the main object in focus and things like that. Ive changed the settings all around and got some ones that i like and work well now with the crappy lighting i have lol. I will eventually get some "white light" spotlights hung up on 1x3's on the ceiling with clamp on spotlights. Thats a little bit later down the line when i start building and photographing the finished modules for the M&ET plans i have for Model Railroader....

Anyways, here are a few shots i took today, let me know what you guys think

 

[TruckLover]

Well crud, after viewing them, it appears that i had too much exposure on alot of them. I had it set to .5 seconds for most of them, and they looked great on the camera, but once seeing them on here, i can tell that it was too much. Ill have to play around some more with less exposure times lol

Anyways, besides that, what do you guys think?

 

[Go Big1]

I think they look fine Josh, but heck, I thought all of your older pics looked just fine too!

One suggestion would be to pull back a bit from the subject you are taking a picture of. Some of your close-ups look too...close. But something tells me you are shooting closer than normal close-ups just to see how they come out, so this may be a moot point.

 

[Squidbait]

Those pics are a huge improvement, Josh! :thumb:

Looks like you're really getting a handle on how to control your camera! Some of them are a tad over-exposed, but that can be corrected (a bit) with some photo-editing software.

 

[Herc Driver]

Awww man you guys have great trucks in HO scale. And your nice pictures just prove my point.:thumb:

Overall, good color balance and sharpness in the pictures. I agree that you could pull back from the subject matter a bit, but I am certainly no camera pro. I always try to shoot "up" at the subject as well, in an attempt to give some sense of proportion and height. There's probably a more technical word for that, but I don't know what it is...I just found the trains and buildings look better if I get the camera as low as possible and tilt the lens up ever so slightly when I take close-ups.

 

[Squidbait]

Josh,

For the exposure, there's a technique called "bracketing" you can try. What you do is take 3 shots, one at 1/2 or 1 stop below your guesstimated exposure, one at that value, and one at 1/2 or 1 stop above. So if you think you need to shoot at f5.6, you shoot one at f4.5, (or f5) one at f5.6 and one at f8 (or f7).

This will (if your initial exposure is correct) give you one shot properly exposed, one slightly over-exposed, and one slightly under-exposed.

The advantage is that if you're slightly off one way or the other with your initial guess, you still get one shot

Some cameras have an automatic bracketing setting, but I don't think yours does. Give it a shot (no pun intended) and see how it works for you.

 

[TruckLover]

I think they look fine Josh, but heck, I thought all of your older pics looked just fine too!

One suggestion would be to pull back a bit from the subject you are taking a picture of. Some of your close-ups look too...close. But something tells me you are shooting closer than normal close-ups just to see how they come out, so this may be a moot point.

Thank-you Mike :mrgreen:

Believe it or not, these shots were taken from about 1-2' away from the subject LOL, i just used the zoom to get more in focus :mrgreen: I will agree that some of the shots i could have pulled back some, some of them were just too to close-ups LOL

 

[TruckLover]

Those pics are a huge improvement, Josh! :thumb:

Looks like you're really getting a handle on how to control your camera! Some of them are a tad over-exposed, but that can be corrected (a bit) with some photo-editing software.

Josh,

For the exposure, there's a technique called "bracketing" you can try. What you do is take 3 shots, one at 1/2 or 1 stop below your guesstimated exposure, one at that value, and one at 1/2 or 1 stop above. So if you think you need to shoot at f5.6, you shoot one at f4.5, (or f5) one at f5.6 and one at f8 (or f7).

This will (if your initial exposure is correct) give you one shot properly exposed, one slightly over-exposed, and one slightly under-exposed.

The advantage is that if you're slightly off one way or the other with your initial guess, you still get one shot

Some cameras have an automatic bracketing setting, but I don't think yours does. Give it a shot (no pun intended) and see how it works for you.

Thank-you Squid for the compliments and suggestions, there greatly appreciated :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I will give the "bracketing" technique a shot, although i dont think i can change the F-stop ive tried that before one time, but the one it auto comes up with is whatever the best scenario is and the other that i can change it to makes the picture so dark you cant even see anything wall1 LOL

I can however do something similar and take a few shots of the same picture using different exposure times, 1/3,.5, and .7 seconds and then pic the best from those, i think that would help out alot :mrgreen:

 

[TruckLover]

Awww man you guys have great trucks in HO scale. And your nice pictures just prove my point.:thumb:

Overall, good color balance and sharpness in the pictures. I agree that you could pull back from the subject matter a bit, but I am certainly no camera pro. I always try to shoot "up" at the subject as well, in an attempt to give some sense of proportion and height. There's probably a more technical word for that, but I don't know what it is...I just found the trains and buildings look better if I get the camera as low as possible and tilt the lens up ever so slightly when I take close-ups.

Thanks Herc :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I know what you mean about not having much in N scale in the way of Trucks. Athearn makes some nice trailers and is starting to come out with some more. Deluxe Innovations makes some very nice trailers, but are rather expensive, and GHQ makes quite a few N scale trucks and construction equipment. And i think Atlas makes some trucks and trailers in N but not for sure on that one. But thats about all ive been able to find that makes good high quality good looking trucks in N scale lol

Thanks for the tips on shooting up too, that does give a more realistic feel if you do it right :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[TruckLover]

I took some more pictures this morning. I dont think these came out quite as well as the pictures i took yesterday, mostly due to the amount of light coming in the window yesterday was more then today i think.

I took Squids advise and i took a couple pics a couple times with different exposure times, and i want you guys to help me pic the better ones out. There are 3 pics that i did this with

Here is the series of shots i took this morning

I took some more practice shots with the camera today. Just to try and get a feel with the camera a little more, and for some fun lol

here are some more that i just took:

In these next 2 pics, which one do you think looks better?? (i think the second one looks better?)

In these next 3 pics which one do you think looks better?? (i think the 2nd one looks the best?)

In these next 2 which one do you think looks better?? (i think the 1st one looks the better?)

And the last one for now

 

[Dan85]

Pictures look good! I think the exposure on the first ones were pretty much dead on with the exception of three that were a little washed out.

I know with my camera, when I shoot in manual it has a gauge for metering exposure, and I typically adjust my settings so I'm just 'one click' under the 'ideal exposure'.

- Dan