Tehachapi, BC

[GaryHinshaw]

^^ Layout is coming along nicely Michel!  I look forward to more updates.

Before I go hook, line, and sinker for photo backdrops, I need to sort out how I'm going to manage some of the lower deck Valley scenes in and around Bakersfield and Edison.   Panorama shots don't really work for these long linear scenes, especially around Edison, since the perspective changes so much with angle.  So I've been trying to harvest some Streetview shots to see if I can stitch them together at all convincingly.  This update shows a test at Kern Jct in the outskirts of Bakersfield.  Here is a screen grab of the general area from Google, which roughly mimics the layout viewer's perspective. Kern and the UP yard are just to the left of this view:



Flat, reasonably tree-lined, and with not much space between the tracks and the subdivisions.   Here is an image I stitched from a bunch of Streetview shots taken along Edison Highway looking across the tracks:



(Click on the image to see a larger version.)  Before I spend any real time on image blending, I want to see if the idea works at all, so I guessed an image scaling and printed and taped up a trial copy:



From eye level and up close, the sizing seems ok: (please ignore the sloppy seams and the printer stripes)





But in the overall shot above, and the one below with a train present, the size seems a bit too small and a bit too lush for summer in the hot, dry Valley:



I'm thinking ~ 25% larger might be about right.  I might try to up the colour temperature a bit too.  Thoughts?

[Philip H]

The sizing thing is the easier problem to solve - put a scale rule on the houses closest to the tracks in the image and size the image to have them be accurately tall for N scale. The trees should fall in line.

As for color temperature of the images - better eyes then mine will have to be employed to tell you if an image on my monitor of your photos of photos are off in that regard.  If you don't like it in person, then Rule 1.

[Scottl]

It looks great @GaryHinshaw, actually remarkable given the internet source.  I'm not convinced it is too small- the houses and trees give a bit of depth perspective by being a bit smaller.  If you print out a page or two at 25% larger, you could compare easily.

Remarkable transformation for Kearn Junction.  I always assumed in person it was some kind of hidden-away location on the layout!

[C855B]

I agree with your impression. The first picture showing the panorama under the valence the background is a little lost; I'd say 10% larger. However, the pic with BNSF 3999 with the two Italian cypress nails the perspective nicely.

What amazes me is how little that area of east Bakersfield has changed in 50 years. Maybe a little dumpier now than then, but not by much. The San Joaquin Valley from Stockton to Bakersfield has been a stressed region as long as I've been around, likely due to its agriculture base. Likely longer - think Grapes of Wrath. A local MRR friend is a big Buck Owens fan, and every time he brings it up I'm compelled to rib him, "Have you ever been to Bakersfield?"

[Cajonpassfan]

Gary, Rule #1 first, so there...
I like the scale, or maybe just slightly larger...I prefer to err on the smaller size to emphasize distances. The color, very personal, I like my lower Cajon greener the most people would, but I model March....pretty darn colorful that time of year. How about you?
The only concern I have has to do with perspective. At track level, the backdrop looks good, but what about standing as you run your train? Shouldn't there be a bit more depth, perhaps with subtle, hazy distant hills?
Fun stuff, Otto

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok. Sorry I haven't replied yet. As I was just about to hit "reply" my primary computer pooped itself.

Here's a quicker version.

First, Gary, this looks amazing for the first pass. But now you know why I got my own printer to allow me to iterate.

Second: I like the size, but try printing smaller chunks to try variations. Now that you've proved the general concept your experiments can focus on just the tweaks you need.

Third, isn't street view amazing? What did you use to download and process the images to do this with them?

[mark.hinds]

My 2 cents: 

1)  The size looks OK to me.  You don't want the first row of houses to be N-scale, as you then lose the forced perspective distance effect. 
2)  My equivalent scene is going to be viewed from a fixed angle, but yours will be viewed from multiple angles, given your multi-deck design.  So the Streetview ground-level view is probably the best compromise.  It will be most accurate for trackside photos like your middle image, but it's still OK for quick-glance casual viewing (when standing up), as in your last image.  It helps that there are a lot of tall objects in that first street (trees and houses) to mask what's behind them. 

MH

[DirtyD79]

If it were me, I'd keep the size as is but change the color temperature to give the trees a drier appearance. The problem with making the backdrop larger is the building and trees will look closer to the tracks. Years ago in Model Railroader somebody entered a photo of a passenger train station and to give the effect of making the tracks appear farther apart and to make the scene look deeper he used O scale models in the foreground, HO scale in the middle, and finally N scale in the background.

[ednadolski]

I think the size works quite well -- I does the job of a backdrop, which is to give the impression of a larger world without overwhelming or dominating the scene.   If you make it much larger then it will begin drawing attention to itself.   You could desaturate the colors a bit if you prefer, but I don't think it needs a lot of change there.

About the only other suggestion I would make is remove some of the one-point perspective elements and the tall/slim objects (mostly trees and utility poles) that stick up above the average height, as they are a bit distracting (in my view).

For a sky, I think it will be important to have something that is pretty uniform all around the room and on both levels, to provide a sense of coherency.   The cloudless look is ideal, but thin/distant/wispy outght to work as well, provided there are no repeating patterns.

I could only wish there were commercial backdrops that were this good, because I would put one on my shelf layout.

Ed

[ednadolski]

One other thought - you might want to try increasing the contrast a bit and see what that looks like.  I've seen many printed backdrops where the contrast and/or colors are not strong enough (was someone trying to save on ink?) and it gives the shadow areas a sort of bland, washed-out effect that detracts from the depth of the scene.

Also consider fade-resistant inks.  IIRC you have fluorescent lights?   Sometimes those can put out UV which can cause colors to fade over time.

Ed

[garethashenden]

What would it look like if you raised up the background 1/2" or so? I think that's why everyone is talking about scaling it up. Its tucked behind the trains. Lift it up, then its easy to curve the landscape up to the backdrop. No one will know its not flat and it will look better. The overall problem is that the horizon is too low. Ideally it probably wants to be at eye level, because that's where it is.

[CRL]

It looks a little short to me too. But you need to come to grips with the fact that it’s only going to look “right” from whatever eye height angle the Google camera was as it rolled by. To get the height of the backdrop right, you could try drawing a vanishing point diagram. Or sit on a stool adjusted to the desired viewing height & just eyeball it.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks gents.  I appreciate the thoughtful comments.  I've printed a sample that is 20% larger, but I haven't had a chance to try mounting it yet, so stay tuned for another iteration and more comments.  For these tests I'm just using my home inkjet printer at a medium quality setting.  When (or if) I settle on a composition I like I'll have it professionally printed [by Ed K?  ].

When push comes to shove, there really is no way around the fact there we're trying to extend a 3-d world with a 2-d backdrop.  What I really need is a holographic backdrop that encodes the full phase information of the 3-d scene behind it, so it appears 3-dimensional to the viewer, with a genuinely luminous sky to boot.     Until that happens, I'll settle for hints of a larger world.  One practical goal is to give operators a sense of place and journey: start in suburban Bakersfield and end up in the Mojave desert.

And yes, Streetview is amazing!  For now I'm just harvesting screenshots from my browser and merging them with Gimp.  The workflow is pretty straightforward, if a bit tedious.

[John]

If you try to have this commercially printed, you might need to get a (C) release from big brother .

[Bendtracker1]

Gary, you could have it printed in 3D like they years ago and hand out the old style glasses?