If you want not only quality German trains, you can get some German Stahlwille spanners!

Kimball, That's about right. The garage was originally a single sided affair for photographing 1/6th scale bikes, but it evolved over the years to what you see here, and as with any full size garage, it ends up with all sorts of toys in it.

Camwader's Garage - 1/6th scale diorama

Alan - That's right. G gauge would be 7.5mm at 1/6th scale, so Z gauge track at 6.5mm is close enough. I'm thinking of making a garden layout at 1/6th scale with the Z gauge acting as G scale.

The 1/6th scale diorama is pretty much a finished project - with the occasional new addition. I also have a 1/12th scale garage diorama which is still a work in progress, but is complete enough for the purpose of photographing 1/12th scale cars. I haven't tried the Z gauge in there yet.

1/12th scale garage diorama

It’s in the Electrolux fridge with the tractor on top.
Because the diorama was made in UK it is probably Boddingtons or McEwens. At least it would be 1/3 price of Aussie beer.
Kimball

Wonderful stuff.
Well done.
Thanks for sharing.

Often the small sensor camera are the best solution for good depth of field photos in these situations. Even if you don't do focus stacking, put the camera on its lowest ISO setting, set to Raw file. If you can't set to Raw the highest quality JPG setting will do.

Take 4 photos. I have tested up to 32 photos, 8 if you are keen, but beyond is really not worthwhile. So 4 is not not too time consuming but averages out sensor noise to a pretty worthwhile point.

If stacking manually in Photoshop etc, it is 100% bottom photo, 50% next photo, 33% 3rd, 25% top photo.

Not 25%, 25%, 25%, 25%.

A separate issue, sharpening the L channel in LAB and blurring AB channels is better than doing it in RBG. While at it double resolution first to average sharpening noise, then half resolution.





Canon S90 (Better than my Canon G9) due to the small sensor. But it did need work due to sensor noise. Couldn't do this the my Canon DSLR or even less so with my Mamiya RZ67.

I do (basically retired) 3d architectural scenes, as difficult as it was building a 3d model, I would say about a 1/3 of the time was setting up good lighting in the 3d space.

The same for photographing models, spend the time in the lighting. Any blocking, bounce, focus, colour temperature will make the image look better. Just cutting a hole in a piece of paper & mount with a coat hanger can change the mood of the scene lighting at next to no expense.

The only issue is that when you get in so close you end up showing the shocking building quality of the cheap labour employed! Deviation in track and platforms not level.

For small lighting effects Rosco colour gel 3 x 6 inch fandeck is a good investment.
https://www.bhphotovideo...els/ci/1329/N/3662541030

I have some Arri lights but I do like working with afternoon sun as it forces you to think quickly for different lighting situations.

Was looking again at your garage with the 1/6th female figures and it reminded me of a movie with Steve Carrell we recently watched with our girls called "Welcome to Marwen".

Modellers who haven't seen it might like this.
Made me think a lot about how we work through certain narratives of our lives through our modelling work. The whole idea is about 1/6 scale and its based on a true story. In fact there is a documentary called "Marwencol" about the man who inspired the tale.
Trailer here is not bad:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3289724/

So you have seen both the documentary and the fictionalized version?