Toy Train effect

[rammy]

I saw this effect done on city shots and thought I would give this shot I did last year, a go at it. Kind of came out ok, what do you think?

[inthedeck]

The DOF here is very shallow. Too bad the train wasn't coming from the left to the right, in the image. This would allow for you to catch the train, in the focal plane, as you can see the diagonal line. Also, a slight crop, of the bottom part couldn't hurt, as it doesn't add much.

Otherwise, a nice attempt, and idea.

[Radtech1]

I agree that you could safely crop off the lower 1/3rd of the shot and it would never be missed. I don't agree that the train should be going across the field of view. On the contrary, this is the point with a manipulation like this.

Speaking of the manipulation, with just a little bit of forethought, it could have been done a little better. The problem is the upright light posts (the red ones). Since they are upright, and the film plane (well, sensor plane) is also upright, they are parallel to the sensor plane. As such, the entire post - bottom to top - would stay either in OR out of focus. They would not be both in focus and out of focus in different areas, as you have them now.

Thinking about this ahead of time, you could have cloned them out. Or, better still, you could created multiple layers, cloned them out of the primary layer, and appropriately blurred them in a different layer, then just combined.

My 2 cents.

Rad

[Ianfp]

At first glance it is hard to tell this from the real thing. I like it!

[MagicallyDelicious]

Can totally see the effect you have gone for!

and it works!

[rammy]

The DOF here is very shallow. Too bad the train wasn't coming from the left to the right, in the image. This would allow for you to catch the train, in the focal plane, as you can see the diagonal line. Also, a slight crop, of the bottom part couldn't hurt, as it doesn't add much.

Otherwise, a nice attempt, and idea.

The DOF and the weird focal plane (diagonal line) along with the horizontal image and lines was exactly what I was going for :-) Not something you can get straight out of camera, not sure if Lensbaby can do it. I think you are right about the bottom bit, not much interest there. Thanks for comments.

At first glance it is hard to tell this from the real thing. I like it!

Thanks, just trying to put a different "slant" to some photos ;-)

Can totally see the effect you have gone for!

and it works!

Thank you, I thought something like this would work well where the train, tracks and platform is all you can see.

[rammy]

I agree that you could safely crop off the lower 1/3rd of the shot and it would never be missed. I don't agree that the train should be going across the field of view. On the contrary, this is the point with a manipulation like this.

Speaking of the manipulation, with just a little bit of forethought, it could have been done a little better. The problem is the upright light posts (the red ones). Since they are upright, and the film plane (well, sensor plane) is also upright, they are parallel to the sensor plane. As such, the entire post - bottom to top - would stay either in OR out of focus. They would not be both in focus and out of focus in different areas, as you have them now.

Thinking about this ahead of time, you could have cloned them out. Or, better still, you could created multiple layers, cloned them out of the primary layer, and appropriately blurred them in a different layer, then just combined.

My 2 cents.

Rad

Thanks for the constructive thoughts Rad. Regarding the unusual focus of the posts, that is what I was exactly going for, but too unnatural for your eagle eyes eh :-) I wanted it to look weird in that everthing is horizontal BUT the focal plane is skewed. I wanted to basically get the front of the train and some of the platform in focus, maybe I shoud have waited for the train to pull further into the station.

Maybe too experimental.