Photo backdrop

 

For a long time I haven't been happy with the limited depth of field when photographing the section of the layout around the western end of Ballarat station and the Lydiard Street crossing. This wasn't apparent until I did the scenery in this section of the layout with consists of a narrow shelve just 30cm wide below the only window in the train room. 

The window frame overhangs the layout by about 30mm, eating into the layout space. Between Lydiard Street and Armstrong Street the frame is partially hidden by the hill/cutting and by Ballarat B Box and other railway buildings, but between Lydiard Street and the station both the window frame and the wall are visible behind the station platform.

In an attempt to hide the frame and add depth to the scene I have played around with producing a detachable photo backdrop. 

The backscene uses a number of different photos to produce the scene along Ararat Street, Lydiard Street and the carpark of Ballarat station. These were sourced from my collection of photos taken at Ballarat over the years, together with screenshots from Google Street view. 

I couldn't get a photograph at the right angle or in the right colours for the Provincial Hotel so have used a photo that I took last year with the grey stonework rather than cream colours that the building was in during the 1980's. 

I had a similar issue with sourcing photograph of Reid's  / Tawana Lodge in the 1980's. The wall of this building that was facing the Ballarat Station carpark was painted grey in the 1980's. I used a photo from the Bring back K162 tour and used photo editing software to straighten and then stitch together wall brickwork,  windows, chimney and roof. 

The carpark was the most difficult to replicate as there was only approximately 20mm between the rear of the platform and the window frame. The only photos that I could find from the period were taken looking towards Lydiard St gates and the station from opposite side of the railway lines from Ballarat B Box and these were generally not clear enough (and not a high enough resolution) or the right angle to use.  In front of this along the station carpatk I have replicated the brick retaining wall using Scalescenes brick sheet. Behind this I have used a combination of images to replicate the rear of buildings, rooftops and skyline of Ballarat. 

Lydiard Street is a Googlemaps Streetview image, edited to remove modern cars and traffic lights adjacent to the railway gates. 

The images are just Bluetacked into place, but long term I plan to print a combined image on adhesive film and attach this to a backing board. In front of this along the station carpatk I have replicated the brick retaining wall using Scalescenes brick sheet. I'm thinking that Reid's is too large, so will try printing different sizes until I'm happy with the overall look.