I'd like to take photos of my various engines, boxcars, cabeese, etc, just to have a record of each piece (one use might be for insurance purposes). I have a little tripod and my phone camera, and zero experience in getting a good photo. Any tips, advice, or help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
For insurance/records purposes, what you want are nice clean shots showing each item, without distractions. The easiest way is to take a small section of track, such as one of the long pieces of Unitrack, and then make some way to get indirect lighting and a neutral background. Shining a light, from both sides, through a white cloth is a good way to achieve this. Or, there are some inexpensive photo light boxes available. And, get the camera up reasonably close, to ensure details can be seen. Good luck
I don't know much of anything about cell phone cameras, but if there's a way to adjust to higher f-stops (like f/16 or more), it'll increase your depth-of-field. This will help to keep the entire piece in focus from one end to the other if it's at an angle in your viewfinder. I love outdoor photography, but find indoor photography difficult. Outdoor light is preferred and perhaps when the weather warms, you can take advantage of it by setting up outside. Yours is a worthwhile project!
Most Cellphone cameras have fixed F stops. The adjustments you can make are ISO, shutter speed and white balance. Given enough light you want to go for the lowest ISO possible but with a Shutter speed more than 1/30th. Anything less than 1/50th really needs a tripod and if you have a tripod use the timer or voice to trigger the shot. I used to be able to trigger my LG by saying CHEESE. White balance auto should work, especially if you use a white background. Some cellphones also have a Macro feature, the icon for it looks like a flower. Oh, one last thing. Don't use ZOOM. Very few phones have optical zoom. Digital zoom just cuts down the pixels uses and blows up the picture. To get the most detailed shots you want to use as many pixels as possible. Zoom by moving the camera.
Ok, this will help. Thanks! I have a macro lens that attaches to the phone, and a tripod. I also have a bluetooth remote control to snap the pictures. Sounds like I have a fighting chance (says the world's worst photographer). LOL
We all start somewhere. Experiment with the macro function, use indirect light, make a light box out of plain paper, and give it a whirl!
Interesting. Here are couple of photos from my LG phone. I don't know the model name, but it is more than a few years old. One is with the flash, one is in just room light. Don't know what the issue is here. Jim
My room light yields muted photo colors as well, though my room light is a maddening and impossible mix of fluorescent, incandescent and daylight. A flash provides a burst of ideal wavelength light and I usually choose it, despite the harshness and shadowing. Your flash result looks pretty good I think and it may be difficult to surpass it with a cell phone camera unless you move outside. A lightly overcast day (to avoid direct light) is best. If you have photo editing software, you can mess with your results (within limits) to punch up vibrancy and correct colors.
In one sense, I like the lower picture a lot better, but the details are blurred, since the camera/phone auto adjusted for the low light conditions. For the original purpose of the question (insurance photos), this is probably fine, but, personally, I would want clearer photos that really show details. But, you don't have to have "modelling realism" (making it look like a 1:1 unit), but documentation of the item.
