New Railroad Tour

[pnolan48]

I'm doing a new tour of the layout as it exists today. I'm doing it as a blog over on Trainboard. I'd like to invite you to see it there, rather than wasting time, and lots of bandwidth, by reposting it here. A blog is the reverse of sequential posts; if you want to follow the layout tour, then you start at the first post, rather than the latest.

Here's a teaser:



I've learned a lot about modeling and model photography in the past few years. I invite comments on my photography and modeling, positive or negative.

My blog is at:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=1576

[asciibaron]

sorry, not going to pay TO to see your layout.

TO can suck it

-Steve

[John]

sorry, not going to pay TO to see your layout.

TO can suck it

-Steve

Steve .. he is on Trainboard, not TrainOrders .. Trainboard is free ..

[wm3798]

I took some time to follow your train around, Pete, and I've got to say you have an impressive layout.  I like the way it flows, and the level of detail that you and Jeanne have put into particular scenes.

I especially like the way it is a "work in progress".  The temporary paper buildings, the sometimes unfinished scene, it really keeps me grounded in reality.  I get so hung up on finishing the minutae, I sometimes lose sight of the big picture.

So hat's off to you, Pete!  And let's raise a glass to the Big Picture!!

Lee

[pnolan48]

sorry, not going to pay TO to see your layout.

TO can suck it

-Steve

I don't know how to respond to this. It upsets me a bit. I know nothing about this TO. Trainboard is free, although we do solicit contributions to help defray the 100-gigabyte per month bandwidth out of Railimages. Maybe I shouldn't post here any more?

[up1950s]

Looks great Pete , thanks for the sharing . If , and you asked , I would suggest anything , your streets look too perfect and clean . Has everybody lost their license to drive , so therefore the streets never get weathered with the normal stains we all see ?  ;D

[pnolan48]

Looks great Pete , thanks for the sharing . If , and you asked , I would suggest anything , your streets look too perfect and clean . Has everybody lost their license to drive , so therefore the streets never get weathered with the normal stains we all see ?  ;D

We'll be working on that! I had to Photoshop out a lot of debris on the roads, so the streetsweeper will come along soon, and deposit the necessary stains, 

[asciibaron]

Steve .. he is on Trainboard, not TrainOrders .. Trainboard is free ..

well, don't i look like a fool - TO can still suck it  ;D

[asciibaron]

I don't know how to respond to this. It upsets me a bit.

just ignore ppl who are wrong?  my bad - i misread the url as a TrainOrders.com site...

[tom mann]

Pete, looks good and fun to run and operate.  If I may make one comment...and since you asked  ... I think the water isn't a very believable color.

[pnolan48]

Tom,

Good observation. The water color is one of those iffy things that constantly bedevils me. The color is mostly a reflection of the back drops. Sometimes it shows up OK, at other times it's too purple. I'll change it in Photoshop. It's nearly black in person, with just the slightest hint of deep blue. I was hoping for a slate blue/gray, but that's one of the trickiest colors to get right. It takes only the slightest amount of magenta to turn it purple. I will mask it, and turn it towards a better color.

Again, thanks for the comment! I'm really a newbie at model photography. It's totally different than shooting wildlife outdoors, or trying to catch a news story on the run. So I do appreciate any and all criticisms. So far I've learned to look at my camera settings with far more attention than before. Now I'll look more at the colors. While this shot was blind, because the camera viewfinder was against a wall, I'm beginning to see how I could have lighted it differently.

[tom mann]

My experiments with water will be of the "shallow mountain stream" variety, so the bottom will be dirt and stone - so I won't have to paint.  However, Roger Holmes has some great water shots.  He told me that he uses olive green/black. 

I would manually set the white balance of your camera before you take a photo to reduce the color shift of the water.  It'll make a big difference.*



*no guarantee.

[pnolan48]

My experiments with water will be of the "shallow mountain stream" variety, so the bottom will be dirt and stone - so I won't have to paint.  However, Roger Holmes has some great water shots.  He told me that he uses olive green/black. 

I would manually set the white balance of your camera before you take a photo to reduce the color shift of the water.  It'll make a big difference.*



*no guarantee.

I've tried that. No guarantee ideedy! It's not a big problem to correct in Photoshop. I just haven't gotten to it yet.