Model Railway photography with an smart phone

[Right Away]

Smartphone cameras can give extremely good results providing you are aware of their limitations.

 

They are designed primarily for the “point and shoot” photographer, simplicity being the keyword. The comparively smaller physical size of a smartphone’ sensor has it’s own limitations but these really only become apparent with large images which are to be printed, “noise” being the major issue. The wide angle lenses are fine for many subjects, but personally I find them too wide. Use of the digital zoom is not a good idea but will render a reasonably satisfactory picture if not overdone. Finally, and perhaps the most important is the fixed, wide aperture of the smartphone’s camera. It is these points and the relative lack of manual controls that can have us reaching for the mighty SLR (or other with manual control) on occasion. But as we get older and less likely to want to heave a weighty camera kit around, the cameraphone has become ever more useful. (At 70+, I’d really struggle with my old D700)

There are many Apps available, and more will be developed (oh no) which claim to give better results than the smartphone’s native camera app, and many do. What we really need is a user friendly interface app with which we can control the phone’s camera as much as possible.

At present, I find CameraPixels Pro has a lot going for it.

Control over shutter speed, sensor ISO , exposure bracketing, focus bracketing to name a few; it is the last mentioned that will be of interest to modellers. 
As mentioned in previous posts, and Andy York’s videos, focus bracketing (or stacking) can give a greater depth of field (sharp focus). You will however need an imaging software capable of processing these stacked images. Photoshop would be the weapon of choice for many, but there are cheaper alternatives out there. Affiniti Photo Pro is a great little app for the later PCs Macs and later iPads. I don’t believe there’s an Android version yet. There are also very helpful tutorials to guide the newcomer.

 

Disclaimer: It must be acknowledged that I have no connection with the developers of these software packages, just a satisfied customer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Right Away

[samfieldhouse]

LBSC123, I've been following your Newtown layout with interest; I've spent many nights on at anchor there and it really is a lovely place.

 

Here's my two penneth on photos - artistic merit is of course subjective, but I like taking these kinds of photos of my layout and this is how I took them.

 

These were all shot on my iPhone 8 using one of three features; the telephoto camera, portrait mode and burst mode. 

 

I haven't used a tripod, any apps or done any post processing - these are literally how they came off my phone.

 

Go looooow

Hold your phone upside down to get the lens as close to the 'ground' as possible. I like this as it makes me feel small when I'm looking at the photo. Almost a 'real life' perspective. 

 

 

Use Portrait mode

Portrait mode on an iPhone uses both lenses to take an amalgamated photo that forces perspective giving artistic background bokeh... basically faking a massive aperture. I quite like the effect for celebrating the subject on an interesting background.

 

 

Use the telephoto 2x camera

The iPhone 7 and above has two rear cameras, one of which has a fixed telephoto lens. Holding your phone a bit further back and using the 2x camera narrows the field of view and depth of field. Again I quite like the effect. You get more of the subject in shot.

 

 

Burst Mode

To 'capture the action' I use burst mode. An iPhone will focus lock on a moving subject. Track the loco and move your hand alongside it holding the shutter button down to nap pics of locos moving.

 

 

Hope that's helpful. These aren't photos intended to show off a layout, but to capture 'scenes' I guess; little vignettes of running sessions.

 

Edited October 13, 2020 by samfieldhouse