NKP 753 v. NKP 753

I think that I would try to get rid of the chain-link fence.

Big Jim posted:

I think that I would try to get rid of the chain-link fence.

too much work... for the next round i'll just move the locomotive.  at steaming bay height this first attempt was to get the camera angle/ framing set up right.  to get this perspective on the mainline, the camera will need to be about 8" off the ground... not the most comfortable position to work from.

overlandflyer posted:

Big Jim posted:

I think that I would try to get rid of the chain-link fence.

too much work... 
... not the most comfortable position to work from.

Too much work? In today's Photoshop age? Really?
O.W.L. hauled his heavy equipment across a river on wires to set up for a shoot and you say this would be too much work! 

It seems to me that the intended focus of this post was to recreate a view of the prototype NKP 753 by using, and show casing, a well detailed model and comparing it to the prototype, at least that is what my eyes seemed to gravitate to. There is much in the way of exceptional modeling that is shown on these forums and I think that was the intent here. The poster even mentioned that this was a "first try".
It is easy to subsequently move the model where a more suitable background could be used. It is not like we are dealing with an immovable full size locomotive sitting in a park. That would be the easier option for me in view of my lack of any expertise with Photoshop.
With that in mind, the only item that caught my eye was the use of the fabricated weldment for the bell mount instead of the castings. NKP had an ongoing program to convert to the fabricated mount so it is possible that the real 753 eventually received one.
Of course I guess with photoshop we could replace the fab mount with the castings?!?`

Big Jim posted:

overlandflyer posted:

Big Jim posted:

I think that I would try to get rid of the chain-link fence.

too much work... 
... not the most comfortable position to work from.

Too much work? In today's Photoshop age? Really?
O.W.L. hauled his heavy equipment across a river on wires to set up for a shoot and you say this would be too much work! 

Dude. Chill. 

Its a picture of a mini loco. Not a massive tribute to an entire railway system. 

Big Jim posted:

overlandflyer posted:

Big Jim posted:

I think that I would try to get rid of the chain-link fence.

too much work... 
... not the most comfortable position to work from.

Too much work? In today's Photoshop age? Really?
O.W.L. hauled his heavy equipment across a river on wires to set up for a shoot and you say this would be too much work! 

I'm a photographer and yes, getting rid of the fence would be a lot of work.  It's not ditch digging, but time consuming never the less.  In order to clone out the fence in that tight area, it would require many (maybe like 100) clone operations.  And then you would have to worry about so many clone operations  making the photo look unnatural.  

There are many people out there that are way better with Photoshop than me and I am sure there is an advanced technique that would make the job easier, but I don't know how.  

Tony

frankly, the rain gutter bothers me a lot more.  too bad i did a little clean-up before taking the photo.  if i had let things be, there would have been an umbrella and two trash cans to help hide that unsightly fence.

Jim... thanks for boldly changing the discussion to the foreground and the comment on the bell mount.  not sure if i subconsciously chose to black and whiten the photo to avoid the brass vs yellow painted steel bell controversy.  what i find interesting about the different bell mounts used on the Berkshires is that while the yoke mount gave the appearance of a swinging bell, both versions apparently had an internal pneumatic clapper so the change was purely cosmetic.

i'm not sure if #753 ever got the modified smokebox mounted electrical junction boxes as many of the Berkshires did, but that is a change i made for operational reasons.  a fairly regular task for a model coal burner, the smokebox front can now open without having to disconnect the numberboards and marker lights.

what i thought you might have noticed, is the single headlight on the full scale locomotive.  i'm sure i read somewhere that NKP changed the headlight to a dual filament lamp at the same time the Mars light was added, but here is #753 with the Mars light and still with a single filament headlamp.  in my case it was more of a serendipitous choice in retrospect.

i also subscribe to a John Allen tenet in that a picture can often reveal model defects more effectively than even a visual inspection, and i do see where a few cosmetic touch-ups are needed, but i'll be doing that with hardware, not software.

cheers...gary

The 753 has the dual beam in this photo dated 10/56.

ah, thank you!  i thought i remembered seeing that photo once.  so there you go... not only the dual headlight, but it now has the modified bell hanger and smokebox mounted electrical junction boxes.

the overhead angle of this photo would definitely be easier to replicate.
the more difficult task would be finding such a gloomy day in Southern California!

Looks pretty darn spectacular to me! 

overlandflyer posted:

the more difficult task would be finding such a gloomy day in Southern California!.

Oh to have your problems.....