I decided to send the e-mail below to Charlie Comstock along
with a test photo, and ask for a little feedback.
Charlie-
I look forward to working with you guys, too.
Along those lines, and since this is my first rail-
road article rodeo, would you please check the
attached photo and make it sure it meets all of
your criteria? I've started the article and now need to take pho-
tos. I don't want to get through the project and find out the
photos won't work.
I reviewed the photo submission criteria and, being somewhat
new to DSLRs, was confused by several comments. Here's what
I have been shooting, and I've used these settings for the pho-
tos I've posted so far on MRH:
Camera: Nikon D3100 14.2 megapixels
Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm
Image size: 2304x1536 (small setting)
Image quality: basic (compression ratio of 1:16) - this is the
lowest quality setting on the camera. If I move it up one step
to Normal, the file size is slightly in excess of 1.0M. Any higher
setting, like RAW, and the files get huge.
F-stop: smallest possible for the lens and available light-
generally f/29-f/36.
White balance: set to cool white fluorescent which matches
the lighting in the layout room.
Shutter speeds: shooting 3-4 exposures, usually starting at the
optimal exposure in the indicator and then stepping up in over-
exposures. The lighter exposures seem to give a better repre-
sentation of the colors and add some depth to the photos.
