Guidelines for Website Photos

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Photo 1: If you are anything like me, you will find it difficult to hold a camera, steady enough, for long enough, to take a good, sharp picture of a model bus! That is why I have turned to placing the camera on a surface, level with the model, to take its picture. That's not compulsory, but it might help you - a tripod is another alternative, of course. ……(next) Photo 2: However, you should take a look around your subject to make sure that you don't include any 'foreign' objects! Even after you have 'cropped your image ……(next) Photo 3: You may find that the background still interferes with the image of your model. ……(next) Photo 4: Try to get close enough, or use the 'zoom' facility of your camera, if available, and use the 'close-up' setting (often a small 'tulip', showing in the viewfinder, on digital cameras), again, if available, because when you 'crop' this image, to the area indicated ……(next)
Photo 5: You may find that it is no longer a clear, sharp image. If you have cropped it, and the resulting size is less than 500pixels wide, stretching it to that size will make it worse! ……(next) Photo 6: Get close enough to your model, but not that close! If you get this close, the distortion makes the image more dramatic, but the model may appear to be badly-shaped. Again, make sure that the 'close-up' setting is enabled. In this picture, the back of the model is quite sharp, but the front is not so good. ……(next) Photo 7: Well, the image is sharper, but I have used 'flash', for this shot, which is not such a good idea - it can play havoc with the colours, and other things. Most of these photos were taken on a rather overcast day, indoors, but in the window, with the curtains drawn right back - it doesn't need to be in full sun (in fact, I would prefer it not to be!) ……(next) Photo 8: Nice picture - shame about the horrible reflection! 'Flash', again - I do not like using flash. ……(next)
Photo 9: No 'flash' on this occasion, but the model has been placed too near the background, andhas cast a shadow - if I had used 'flash', it would have been worse. The saloon looks as if it is half-filled with diesel fumes, but this is a trolleybus! If the background had been a townscape scene, or worse still, the sky, then I would have had a shadow of the model - on the sky! ……(next) Photo 10: Well, that covers the most common problems that I seem to find in my own photos, as well as those of others. They are worth thinking about, because I am sure you would wish your own models to appear in the best possible light (pun intended!), on the MBF Website ……(next) Photo 11: The model which is the subject of this gallery is the Pirate Models Q1-class trolleybus, representing London Transport No.1790. Photo 12: London Transport 1790 was built, about 10 years ago, by myself, for the late John Shrimpton, who died in January, 2003. He knew well of my interest in trolleybuses and he left the model to me, in his will.
Photo 13: These photos of the model can now be added to my website and, one day soon, I hope to set up the Walford Arches Trolleybus Terminus layout again, and introduce 1790 to the rest of the fleet. Photo 14: I hope this 'Demo' gallery will help fellow members produce photos to 'showcase' their own models on the MBF Website ……(next) Photo 15: Remember, it is very easy for me to produce, with the help of the software I use, the gallery, but you can help by producing good clear images of your models! ……(next) Photo 16: Just in case you were wondering, I did manage to hold the camera steady enough, for long enough, for the all-important roof-top equipment of the trolleybus!
 
Guidelines for Website Photos


This gallery is intended to help members, who would like to 'showcase' some of their models, in their own personal 'Members' Own Gallery', to provide suitable photos and texts. The 'guidelines' apply equally well for all other kinds of galleries, appearing on this website.


Please Note: The specification for photos for use on the MBF Website is entirely different from the specification of photos for reproduction in the Journal. If you have photos you wish to submit for reproduction in the Journal, then please first see these Guidelines for Journal Photos.


Photos
Good photos are needed - 'real' photos (prints, which can be scanned ), or digital images (scans of prints, or images from a digital camera). Photos can often be arranged, at MBF events.

If you wish to edit the photos yourself, then please refer to the following notes:
1. Try to crop them to get the model in the middle!
2. Crop the photos, so that the subject fills the frame, with just a little background, around the subject model, as well.
3. Crop the photos to a final width of 800 pixels - the height is not so important.
4. Save the photos in J-PEG format (xxxxxxxx.jpg) ONLY!! (Please use lower case letters ONLY, and/or numbers, in the filename).
5. When saving each photo, if there is some order, or sequence, to the photos and texts for captions, please just add a 'serial' No. 01, 02,.... ahead of the main filename, and that will keep them in the order required.

If you do not feel confident enough to do the computer editing yourself, then just send them as is and let me do any necessary processing.


Texts
1. As you will see from those albums already completed, the facility is available to include a general, 'covering note', extra to the individual captions, which will appear on the 'Thumbs' page (which is what you are reading now). Please limit this to a maximum of about half a dozen paragraphs. Simple text formatting can often be accommodated.
2. In addition, any text for 'captions' (different text for each 'View' page) you may wish to add, should refer to the serial numbers/filename of the images. Captions should be limited to a single paragraph. When composing captions, please say more than "This is a photo of a red trolleybus". That much is visually obvious, and doesn't really need to be said, at all!
3. There is also the facility to add an e-mail address and/or Internet link, to your own website, if required, so please include this if required.


Send your photos and texts to the MBF Web Administrator at the address on page 3 of your Journal, or by email to the address shown in the "Contact Us" section of this website.


Privacy

Please make it clear, when sending your photos and texts, if you will allow your Gallery to be placed in the section which is accessible by the general Public.

We understand that some members will not wish their models to be publicised, and we will respect your right to privacy. If you do not state your preference, the gallery will be automatically placed in the Private, Members ONLY, password-protected section of the MBF Website.


That is about all there is to it! - Go take some pictures!

.....and send them to me, the MBF Web Administrator, either by post to the address on page 3 of any Journal, or by email to the address shown on the "Contact Us" page of this website.


Please Note: The specification for photos for use on the MBF Website is entirely different from the specification of photos for reproduction in the Journal. If you have photos you wish to submit for reproduction in the Journal, then please first see these Guidelines for Journal Photos.


 
 
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