Can-Am RC Tank Club

[oldwolf]

What an amazing battle area. Are the buildings made of materials that can be left out in the rain? Or do they have to be packed away between battles?

[dgsselkirk]

Here are some shots from this past weekend. A couple of them are from on top of the storage trailer....

[Hammertime999999999]

[Hammertime999999999]

Like to frame image

[Hammertime999999999]

[Hammertime999999999]

I always try to shoot image close to the surface...it automatically makes the subject look full size and it fills the frame.

[Hammertime999999999]

[SoCalBobS]

One other thing to think about is the height of the photographer, or more precisely his camera. Getting this right really enhances the realism.

[Panzermechaniker]

Bob that looks great. I'm starting to think the trick is to concentrate on getting the surfaces and background scenery right not only in the original photo but also in the editing process as the armor looks good regardless. This is really quite fun. I also see now why professional photographers still like to work with black and white

[SoCalBobS]

PM, that looks great. Looks real. Sunlight and shadow is critical for outdoor grayscale shots. This one was in the California desert sun. I'm not so much into it as it might seem, but often the developing process of b&w would affect the dark and lightness of particular colors. For instance, sometimes blue would look dark and sometimes light. And of course everything fades in time!

[Panzermechaniker]

Another attempt. Tried more to alter the bridge and surface than the Panther

[Hammertime999999999]

Here’s a few more...

[SoCalBobS]

My compliments on a great job!

[Panzermechaniker]

I'm one of the new guys in the club so although I laid down the tracks this year I don't know a lot about the garden railway itself. Dean said they used to have it operational but it would keep coming off the rails. The problem with the rails is they are 2 different manufacturers with opposite ways of joining and then the soil itself is glacial till so very hard to get the anchors in without hitting a stone. We had the tracks out before but they weren't really properly put in the ground so they actually were quite a rough ride for the tanks even and you could get hung up. I found the best way was to dig out a groove, lay and anchor the tracks and then completely cover them with a sandy clay and then let the rains and sun do the rest. Considering they would have been hastily built spur lines to deliver to the missile sites I figured the half buried look worked. We should have some more rails and rail cars coming this weekend so we could possibly extend and improve what has been laid down. But thanks for the compliment. The field has been under construction pretty well for the last 2 years as the brick roads were put in by a club member skilled in that. It just seemed to suddenly all come together a couple of weekends ago. It is a large field with a lot of features and very difficult to get it all into one photo frame

[SoCalBobS]

But Bob your photo is with the much higher quality US made film and expensive US Army cameras of the time. The German war time film quality was hugely inferior to US film quality and personally owned cameras of the German officers were not as good as the ones provided by the US Army to our troops.

So it follows US photos would be less grainy and clear compared to German photos. I guess I was looking at PMs photo as taken by a German officer using his personal camera from a distance vs close up.

Hmm, not a Leica then? It's that digital graininess I try to diminish down to say, the level of third rate cameras and paper. PM, I like your first grayscale a lot. Let me ask about your battlefield. The rail line looks very realistic. I imagine your rains fill the dirt in around the tracks. Is that locomotive operational? I used to run a LGB layout in my backyard, ultimately made the locomotive radio controlled with an onboard battery to eliminate those dead spots!

[Rubicon99]

PM, I've tried to simulate vintage b&w photos. It's not as easy as it seems, is it? I don't think outdoor photos in WW2 were so much grainy as sorta blurry, due to the quality of some of the lenses. Let me know what you come up with.

This was one attempt. Still not right.



Have a good time at your battle.

But Bob your photo is with the much higher quality US made film and expensive US Army cameras of the time. The German war time film quality was hugely inferior to US film quality and personally owned cameras of the German officers were not as good as the ones provided by the US Army to our troops.

So it follows US photos would be less grainy and clear compared to German photos. I guess I was looking at PMs photo as taken by a German officer using his personal camera from a distance vs close up.

[Panzermechaniker]

Wow I think you nailed it perfectly with that one. Hopefully I can pull one off that good

[SoCalBobS]

PM, I've tried to simulate vintage b&w photos. It's not as easy as it seems, is it? I don't think outdoor photos in WW2 were so much grainy as sorta blurry, due to the quality of some of the lenses. Let me know what you come up with.

This was one attempt. Still not right.



Have a good time at your battle.

[Panzermechaniker]

I've never edited a photo before so will try for that grainy shadowy look. Also that photo was taken in bright sunshine. Since we usually have grey crappy weather most of the time here we can get that early 1945 look to work with. Generally we don't use my images but since this thread has just been started I've been just uploading my phone pics. Should get much better ones in the future. Hopefully starting with our 3 day battle weekend starting this Friday

[Rubicon99]

My .02 cent. Add a bit more "grain" and shadows. Something like this if you are going for the 75 year old photo archive look.