Model Trains C&C

oldzzy · Apr 12, 2009

Hey guys i am new to the hobby, and i am having troubles getting the focus right while taking pics of some model trains. The lighting in the room is horrible! I am using a Canon Rebel XS. TIA.

Sherman Banks · Apr 12, 2009

The focus point seems to be the screw between the wheels, is that where you intended? The lighting has the yellow look of indoor lighting, but you can correct that in post production pretty easily if you are shooting in RAW and maybe even in JPEG if you have Photoshop. It really doesn't look bad, but I think you could get some better angles to better explain your subject matter. Post more if you've got em!

oldzzy · Apr 13, 2009

I was trying to get more of that area in focus than i did. As i said the lighting is horrible and it was giving me a lot of trouble. Here are a couple more pics.

Sherman Banks · Apr 13, 2009

Your lighting does not look that bad at all, at least you're exposing your shots properly. If anything, you can mess with your on-camera white balance to compensate for the yellow tint (which I now realize that is a gold train right?). If you are trying to get more of the shot in focus, increase your aperture and slow your shutter speed. This will increase your depth of field and should achieve what you're going for. Note that as you increase your f-stop more, your shutter speed has to get slower to get the exposure right. This just means you'll want a tripod or something to stabilize your camera to avoid motion blur. Hope this helps and I look forward to seeing your next results.

oldzzy · Apr 13, 2009

Thnx for your input. Yes the train is a brass train. I hopefully will try again tomorrow.

Katier · Apr 13, 2009

Are you working off a tripod? For this kind of work you should and allways run at a small aperture ( F16 or F22 ) and longer shutter speed. That way you'll get better depth of field.

Of course I'd use a Large Format Camera as I could guarantee getting it tack sharp regardless of the aperture but you ought to be able to get it good enough with a tripod and small aperture.