Project one: Model railways
Chris Nevard explains how you can capture photorealistic images of model railways on a budget
My aim is to make model railway photos look as realistic as possible. But the process I use to shoot miniature worlds is very different to the full-sized one, and it has its challenges. You’re limited as to where you can angle the camera to avoid the real world beyond, and shooting close-ups means you’ll be dealing with very shallow depths of field. Fortunately, you have complete control of the weather and lighting, and nothing is moving, so you can shoot at slow shutter speeds and take the time to manage your scene. You can also achieve elevated, ‘aerial views’ without an expensive drone! And finally, expensive kit isn’t a necessity – you don’t need 20fps bursts or super-fast AF. In fact, I prefer manual focus, so you can even make use of vintage F-mount lenses.
How to shoot a model railway
You don’t need fancy kit to capture miniatures, just a lens that will focus down to around 25cm. Most modern kit lenses are pretty good in this respect. For the image in this feature, I used a Nikon AF 35mm f/2D. Most of my lenses are F mount, even though I mostly shoot on my Z 5: the reason being, I also like to shoot 35mm film.
Even though many model railways have lighting
