Introduction

Having seen many poor attempts at photographing N gauge stock (particularly for sale on eBay), I have decided to write this article which describes what I do and may hopefully help some readers to produce better pictures for their records or listings.

The method described here will not produce top quality studio pictures - to do that you will need to use a studio. What this method should do is produce pictures that are of sufficient quality to clearly illustrate the item being photographed with the minimum of effort and equipment.

The remainder of this document contains a comprehensive description of what I do which seems to produce good representative images of the N gauge stock that I have.

Location

I use a sturdy table that is set against a wall in a well-lit room, but out of the direct sunlight. I photograph at approximately 90 degrees to the window.

Lighting

Light is both your best friend and your worst enemy. Without light there is no picture and with too much light and/or light in the wrong places then the image is ruined and there is no picture.

Do not use artificial (tungsten) light - this is what produces the yellow/orange colour cast on some pictures that you may see. Fluorescent strip lighting is also deceptive - it looks bright but in reality is a very low light - as anybody who has tried to take pictures in an office will know. Switch off any lights in the room.

If I do find that additional light is required - particularly in winter - then I use angle poise lamps with daylight bulbs fitted. Once everything has been put together take a step back and look at the set. If it looks as if there is enough light to work by, then normally there is enough light to work by.

Props

On the table I place a large sheet of white cartridge paper (I use A2 although it may be possible to manage with A3 for short wheelbase items). The paper lies on the table surface and curves up the wall at the back of the table, thus forming both the foreground surface and the background. Use white material as it reflects the light and will also make any shadows obvious so that they can be removed by adjusting things before photography commences.

Do not fold or crease the paper at the change of direction - allow it to curve naturally. I can usually secure the paper by using weights on the lower edge or if necessary a blob of blu-tac to stick it to the wall. If that would be a problem, put something between the wall and the background first. Only the first 100mm or so of the vertical background will be relevant in the final image so don't worry if the upper part of the background is untidy.

Do not use shiny or glossy background material - this will catch the light and cause flare, which you certainly don't want.

You may want to put additional white material (such as polystyrene blocks) to the left and right of the paper to assist in bouncing light around the image but I've never found this necessary for the N gauge stock that I have photographed.

Positioning

Now that the set is ready, I add the length of track and of course the item of stock itself.

These are positioned at a shallow angle (approximately 30 degrees) to the camera position, with the left edge of the item closest to the camera. Why the left edge? Why not - it seems to be a convention. If you prefer the right edge leading in a three-quarter view, then position the track and stock accordingly.

I tend not to photograph stock sideways on (flat) to the camera; the three-quarter view tends to produce a more flattering image plus you can also see one end of the item as well as one side.

Two common positionings that I see which can detract from the final picture:

1. Stock that is laid on its side and photographed from above. Things look better when photographed in their natural position. For railway stock this is either sitting upright on its wheels or in its box. Instead of lying unboxed stock on its side and photographing from above, place it upright and photograph from the side.

2. Stock that is sitting on track with joints, curves or pointwork etc. This adds an unnecessary distraction to the picture. Use a straight piece of flexi track or one of the longer pieces of Setrack. As can be seen from the pictures below, all that will be seen in the final image is the track directly under the stock plus another three or four sleepers length either side.

The item should be in the centre of the paper and be positioned around 100mm from the background - this should prevent any shadows from appearing there.

Now look to see where the light reflects from the item and/or the side of the rail. This is particularly important if you are using additional light sources. Move the light and/or the item so that any flare point is not going to be on or near the item. The additional light source is doing just that; providing additional light - it is not the main light.

The Camera

As the subject is sitting on the table, then so shall the camera. I use a fairly basic digital compact camera, which I place parallel to the background around 400mm from the item.

On the camera, I turn the flash off, turn the macro mode on and zoom in to the maximum extent.

Always turn the flash off. The camera is much too close to the item for the flash to be used. Too much light in all the wrong places. You've seen the results. If you cannot turn the flash off, then stick a piece of black tape across the flash lens.

If your camera does not have a macro (close up) mode, then check the manual and see what the minimum focussing distance is. For example, if the closest distance is 500mm (0.5m), then make sure that the camera is at least 500mm from leading edge of the stock otherwise the subject will be out of focus.

Zoom in as far as you can. The larger the subject is in the frame, the more detail will appear in the resulting picture. Don't worry if you can see the vertical edges (or even a horizontal edge) of the background paper in the image; all you are concerned with is the subject and the area immediately around it. The centre of the side of the item should be in the centre of the frame.

Now take the picture. On my camera the shutter is on top of the camera body, so I am pressing down onto the table. The table is sturdy so the camera doesn't move in any direction so images are clear and sharp.

Image Manipulation

Download the image to your computer and have a look at it in a graphics package. You will see a very large picture with the item taking up a small area somewhere in the middle. The image will also look a lot darker than it appeared in the camera.

At this point, three things need to be done; 1. Lighten the image, 2. Make the item much larger in the image, 3. Reduce the size on disk of the image.

To take care of the dark areas (particularly around the underframe) adjust the brightness and contrast. I use 25% brightness and 15% contrast that lifts the underframe detail at the expense of occasionally making some of the image look a little overexposed.

In the graphics package, cut out a rectangle showing the item and a small area around the item. Don't cut too close to the item otherwise the picture will look a little strange; the eye needs to be able to see a little bit of the area around the subject, even if it is a plain white background. Make the cut-out rectangle a new image (I use Paint Shop Pro; Copy then Paste does that).

I save the images as JPEGs with Progressive Encoding (the picture gradually appears as it is loaded). The image size for a mainline locomotive or bogie coach is around 1200 x 400 pixels and the file size is between 60K and 70K. A perfectly adequate record photograph that shows the item at several times life size.

eBay

If you are photographing stock for sale on eBay, then one final operation to perform on the image is to resize it to fit the aperture on the eBay listing.

The size of the aperture is 400 pixels (horizontal) by 300 pixels (vertical). Unless you are enabling the supersize option, uploading an image larger than 400 x 300 pixels just means that image will be 'squashed' into the viewport. Better to provide an image that will look the same both online and offline.

Resize the image so that it fits in the eBay viewport. For most N gauge stock, resize the horizontal dimension to 400 pixels. Make sure this is a proportional resizing; your item will appear distorted otherwise. When the image has been resized, check the dimensions; the horizontal should be no more than 400 pixels and the vertical no more than 300 pixels.

Save the image as a JPEG with Progressive Encoding (the picture gradually appears as it is loaded). The file sizes are normally between 20K and 30K. A perfectly adequate image for eBay listings.

Endpiece

...and we're done! Hopefully this is of help to someone. As I stated at the beginning, you won't get studio quality pictures from this method, but they should be good enough for the intended purpose. All you need is the digital camera, a large piece of paper (or material) and some thought.

Digital imaging is not my area of expertise; someone may be able to tinker with the brightness and contrast settings for a more flattering effect. These numbers may also need to be varied depending on the livery of the item being photographed.

Comments and opinions welcome. If anybody has any other (better) ideas, particularly in the digital manipulation section, then I would be interested to hear them.

Examples

The proof of the pudding, I hope! Here are two examples of images created using the method described above. These images have been reduced in size to fit the eBay aperture.

Finally an example of an image that hasn't been reduced in size, suitable for record keeping or archiving. [I've noted the dislodged underfloor tanks!]