Please post all your comments in this thread so that the tutorial can stand alone with distracting comments. Thanks everybody.

PS. Sorry Lawrence and Petermac but I have deleted your posts as you got there before I did. Please make them again here if you wish.

I have also made the tutorial a sticky so that it will remain prominent in the Model Railway Photography section.

Very good.  A handy reference point for those who wish to improve or even just remember about photography.

A good start, Alan. This section will refresh everyone's minds about what the different numbers mean. It's clear and easy to read, I like it :exclam:exclam

Thankyou Alan this thread will help a lot of members including myself to understand what we should be doing with the camera

cheers Brian

Alan - my thanks to you for going to so much trouble. It's very thorough indeed.
I've always thought this forum deserved its own photography tutorial, rather than links to others, and yours is up with the best of them :thumbs

Mike

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

From now on each post will be related to photographing your layouts, or models, in which I will try and explain it as we go, looks like we could be going an a long journey.

:doublethumb:doublethumb:doublethumb:doublethumb

As long as it's by train… the best kind of journey. I'm aboard. Right away Alan.

That didn't take long for that one to be picked up.

Great stuff, and even better if it has specifics on layout photography as this always tends to be in the more difficult circumstances, eg indoors, artificial light etc. I look forward to the next episode.

Ist Tutorial is posted.

Showing the difference between flash and available light.

I have put this up in a rather simple way, is fine with you all, or would you like it explained in depth.

Just a thought, if you have any subects that you would like explained, please ask away, because this will help me sort the next couple of tutorial's out, rather that steaming on, talking about things that you all don't want to know.

Hope you all enjoy

Thank you Alan,

The images clearly show the benefit of trying to photograph without the flash.

Can you explain why when changing the F value from 5 to 11 you changed the shutter speed from 1/6 (of a second?) to 1 second?

cheers

Thanks alan ,there are other hints and tips on photography on here ,however it will be good to have a tutorial that starts for a beginner such as myself and takes us through the various levels .thanks again.:thumbs

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Can you explain why when changing the F value from 5 to 11 you changed the shutter speed from 1/6 (of a second?) to 1 second?

cheers

Marty

To get a correct exposure, the camera must be set at a shutter speed and an aperture that matches to give a correct exposure, such as

shutter speed = 1/30

aperture = f4.5

If we forget about the ISO for the moment, and look at the above settings of a photo that we want to take, of a loco on your layout,without flash and using available light, with the exposure of above you could hand hold and take the photo, but the depth of focus would be very shallow, as per the second image of the post, but to get a far greater depth of focus ( more of the photo in focus as the third image of the post) you need to alter the aperture to say f11, which would mean that the shutter speed would alter as well to give you the correct exposure, something like 1/4 of a second.

This would mean that you could not hand hold the camera anymore, and would need something to either rest the camera on, or a tripod.

Hope that has helped.

Thanks for taking the time to post such a comprehensive tutorial explaining the basics. My current technique involves the take 20 bin 19 principal. I'm off to sweet talk Mrs RJR into letting me get a camera with adjustable f stops now !!!

John
RJR

Thanks Alan, I've been experimenting and observing how the light level changes with the change in settings. More practice required but I'm getting there.
My Powershot A620 has a maximum f setting of 8.0 but that has made a huge change to the depth of field already.
cheers

With Pete away all of next week, and my workload at work  building and building, the modelling will have to take a back seat for a week or two, this will give me a little time to sort out the next tutorial.

Can you all please put down the subjects that you want covered, and I will look into them.

great so far alan, maybe a camera price break down. i know it is not about taking pictures but you could suggest a camera (in your opinion) that is a good buy. you can have a price range £1 to £100 £101 to £200 etc etc up to £500. the only reason i am asking this is i am thinking of purchasing a canon G9 but would like an honest opinion of what else is in or around that bracket. they are also bringing out a G10 so is it worth hanging on.

back to topic. i like to weather and then show a loco once this is done. i have found that by using a white background this helps. so how would you take a detailed picture of a single loco\wagon to show the detail. i think if you are showing a weathered\detailed wagon it is best to keep the area around the subject clear (no scenery) as this distracts the vision.

Matt

2nd Question first

I would use a mini studio, and this would make a good tutorial, as I don't have one myself, so if you and a couple of other members would like to use one, then I will look into it for you.

 

1st Question

My knowledge of all the camera's that are available is limited, but I will have a look at the Canon G9 and also see what is around at the same price for you.

Matt

Look at these reviews

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong9/



 

But for a little bit more you can have this

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms100fs/

 



 

The Canon G9 is a very good compac camera, but you are a little limited with the highest f-stop being 8, and also the ISO, but with the Fuji, the f-stop goes to f11, and the ISO goes to 6400 ( which would allow you photograph a black cat in a coal bunker) , and you also get a much larger zoom and a better Marco,but at the prices that I looked at it looks as if the difference is around £100, or the same as the new G10. it really comes down to what you want it to do at the end of the day.

Any more questions Matt just ask away.

Now that, Alan, is exactly the sort of info I have been thinking about.
Might have to change my Christmas wish list.
Some research required I think. WWW here I come.