Monday 28 October 2013

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant in Glorious Colour!

I was whingeing recently in my comments on Geoff's excellent  article on good yard textures about how difficult it was to recreate colour from black and white photos.

It is typical therefore that almost immediately afterwards I found this set of colour photos of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant.

£15 for each high definition download is a bit steep if you ask me but even the preview versions have provided me with some useful information. I'm glad I found them now rather than in a year's time because they've corrected my understanding of a few points. In a particular I'm really pleased to find this shot of the shed with the fuel pump next to it. I think it will make a nice cameo.



I'm certainly a lot happier now I know more about the colour of the goods yard and after another couple of washes I think I'm getting closer to the right effect. I need to do something about the vegetation around the edges. It would appear to need to be a darker green than the grass behind it and more weed than grass.


4 comments:

  1. The ground cover is looking great. I looked at the Archive site...the photos are fascinating, but a little expensive for casually including a couple in the blog! ...however, I suppose that is for full rights for reproduction...sledgehammer and walnut..

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  2. Thanks Iain. I need to do a lot of tidying up on the ground cover front, especially trimming back long fibres from the hanging basket liner and adding in some more textures. Winter has also revealed I have an issue with the colour temperature of the lighting . It looks OK to my naked eye, but in photos there is a very clear and awkward division between where the layout lighting predominates and where light is spilling in from the room.

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  3. I had forgotten all about the Archive website James so thanks for posting the link. Your goods yard is looking really promising, if you want to add some lighter areas then a dusting of talc works really well, it also helps to blend different tones together. Old hair trimmers are just the job for removing those long fibres, disposable razors also come in handy.

    I got around the lighting problem by replacing my modelling room lighting with three adjustable tungsten spots mounted on the ceiling. I set them up to point in the same direction but at slightly different angles depending on what height I want the sun to be. I also found that tungsten lighting works very well for digital photography.

    Have fun,
    Geoff

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    Replies
    1. Geoff, Being a fan of Lifecolor I might try a mix of their damp dust pigment and tensocrom medium, if only because I have them to hand. Talc seems hard to come by in our house, having been replaced by more expensive cosmetic solutions.

      I'm still intrigued by the lighting in the Venetian shopping mall in Vegas http://www.thisreallyhappensinvegas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Venetian-Gondola-Rides-Las-Vegas-Nevada.jpg where the lighting , which cycles through various effects,appears to be coming from low level lights behind the buildings reflecting off a domed sky. Overkill, but it has made me think that there is scope for more theatrical layout lighting, especially in a boxed diorama.

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