Ian Cambourne  


Model Railway by Ian Cambourne

January 2019 - Model Railway

January 2019 - Ian Cambourne

Original 1

January 2019 - Ian Cambourne

Original 2

About the Image(s)

This image is one of many taken for a neighbour. May 2018, a neighbour a few doors down the street suddenly passed away. He loved his model railway set. His widow asked me if I would photograph it for him, and of course, no is not a word in my vocabulary. I hadn't seen Peter's trains for almost 20 years, so I asked Vera if I could have a look before I started with the camera. This is an ongoing task, as I said to Vera, "It's an elephant to be eaten just one bite at a time". I am convinced that no camera and lens combination can carry sharp focus through the entire image, none that I can afford anyway. So I consulted some notes from a very knowledgeable friend and taught myself this thing called "Focus Stacking". Exposure details are constant and do not change Sony a850; Sigma 50mm lens; ISO 100; f13 (lens limit is f16); 4 sec's (yes 4 seconds); tripod mounted & cwa metering. The final image is the end result of 6 images. As can be seen from original 1, the sharp area is in the foreground, in original 2 the sharp area is in the background. The middle 4 images were taken with simply moving the focus point a little further back through the image with each exposure. Then I followed the steps in my friend's notes using PS and got an image that Vera is very happy with. This is just 1 bite of that elephant. I like to think that our photography can also be some small benefit to others than ourselves.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
8 comments posted




 
Ian - great work with the focus stacking! I don't do a lot of it, but I know it's rewarding when it works, as you have shown above. Did you use Helicon?   Posted: 01/05/2019 06:02:50
Ian Cambourne   Ian Cambourne
Thanks Cyndy. No I didn't use Helicon, actually I've never heard of it. All done in Photoshop.   Posted: 01/06/2019 04:40:45



Trey Foerster   Trey Foerster
Bravo, nicely done! I saw this method used on a canoe on a lake with a peninsula and then a mountain behind it. You definitely have more patience than I do! There are so many horizontal lines in the image, which one did you use for this image?   Posted: 01/05/2019 08:52:43
Ian Cambourne   Ian Cambourne
Thanks Trey, actually it didn't take all that long once I got my head around the task. Yes there are a lot of horizontal lines here and I pretty much used each one as a focus point. The nearest edge of the station platform; the train; the figure dressed in blue & white on the steps; the fence on the near side of the road; one of the cars (can't remember which one) and the building in background. F13 gave enough dof in each image to allow for an overlap in the final stacked image. Only a couple on minutes to capture the 6 images and then around 15 minutes in PS given that I am very new to this.   Posted: 01/06/2019 04:51:34



Sanford Morse   Sanford Morse
I have used this technique since Fujifilm added it to its firmware for the X-T2. I shoot with Fujifilm's 16mm and usually it takes 8-9 exposures to have everything in focus from 6" to infinity. Maybe it makes this technique too easy?   Posted: 01/06/2019 20:15:47



Jay Joseph   Jay Joseph
Ian, great results. I have only seen focus stacking used for landscape photographs, where fine detail is not as obvious or necessary.This photograph is sharp in all areas, well done.   Posted: 01/07/2019 10:56:07



 
Great work Ian. I don't even know how to images like this. Think I'll try.   Posted: 01/13/2019 10:23:50



 
Im sorry about the news of your neighbor. I really like model trains myself. My great aunt use to own a train park that replicated Thomas the Train and we would ride those the whole day. I like how you where able to make the picture so clear.   Posted: 01/13/2019 17:57:02