Using photoshop I merged a close up photo of an N scale (1:160) model train with an actual image of Wallingford CT’s downtown railroad station. The locomotive EMD SD P4 F and each passenger car is about 5″ long and about 1″ tall. They type 1 phase II which represents the type of engine, cars and paint scheme that rain the tracks of Amtrack in CT during the late 70’s and 80’s.
The Wallingford Railroad Station, built in 1871 by the Hartford & New Haven Railroad on the Springfield Line is an historic building as still stands today. It was a daily stop along Amtrak’s New Haven, Hartford, Springfield line up until about 3 years ago when a modern station was built about 1/2 mile north up the tracks.
Wallingford is my hometown where I grew up in the 60’s and 70’sand I have a lot of fond memories of it. As a result I chose this train sation for my first attempting at merging a model train into a real world setting. Although I had done this with miniature cars & motorcylces in the past it was my first attempt with a train.
At the time I put this project together I was not aware that, ironically, the Wallingfrord Train Station has been home to the New Haven Society of Model Engineers.
In July, 1994 the Society was notified that it must vacate the New Haven Station where it had been based for many years. In 1995, the club moved into the Wallingford Railroad Station. The Society is constructing a 15 x 30 foot, double deck “HO” scale layout. The Society has also built a portable “HO” scale layout, so that we can attend smaller train shows where our “O” scale layout would be to large. The Society consists of about twenty-five men and women.
Photograhed using (2) camera’s, a field camera and a studio camera:
The train station was photographed with a Sony A7RII 42.3 MP full frame mirrorless camera with a Sony 24-105 F4 lens @ 43 mm. ISO 800, 1/80, F16, Aperture priority.
The KATO model train was photographed in my studio on the tracks of a KATO layout. Close up photography has a very shallow depth of field requiring me to take (87) shots at incremental focus points along the trains and merging them all together into one completely in focus shot. This is called focus stacking and it is done automatically, one the parameters are set, in Helicon Focus software.
Each individual shot: 2 second exposure, ISO 100, F16 (87 times), and Focus Stacking
Camera: Nikon D7100, Nikon 105 mm F2.8 MACRO lens, all tethered to software.
I look forward to doing more of this with trains as I acquire additional locomotives/cars.
Recent Comments