A traditional problem when photographing small-scale models is limited depth-of-field. If the foreground is in focus the background isn't, and vice versa. Most cameras won't stop down far enough to avoid this, and even if they did, there would be problems with long exposure times and refraction.
When out of doors in daylight we are never aware of anything being out of focus, so when we see this in a model photograph it immediately destroys the illusion.
There are now two extremely promising image editing programs available to solve this problem. Here are some amazing pictures from the Atlas N gauge forum showing the impressive results obtained (this is N gauge!):
Helicon Focus and CombineZ5 are photo-stitch programs which combine multiple images to create one with extended depth of field. Take several frames of a scene on your railway, focusing on different distances into it for each frame, and then combine them to create a single image which is sharply in focus throughout from foreground to background.
Helicon Focus is very easy to use and costs about GBP 60 (or it can be bought in 4 yearly instalments at about GBP 18 each). There is a free trial version available. The pictures above were created using Helicon Focus.
CombineZ5 is a more complicated program to use, but produces equally good results, and it is FREE. It also includes some features which are only available in the more expensive Pro version of Helicon Focus.
These programs are mainly intended for microscope work (where depth-of-field is practically none-existent), but they are just what we have been looking for too.
There is a detailed review of both programs at:
Martin.
---------- web: