John and I have both recently bought digital cameras, and have been finding out what they can do. I find them easy to use and ideal for photographing the layout, but one problem cannot be easily overcome, and that is the unrealistic background of the exhibition hall intruding into the pictures. If you just want a record of the event, that is fine, but I like to try and capture a scene that looks as realistic as possible, particularly from low level to give the viewpoint of a figure standing on the layout. The roof of the hall is invariably present in the pictures.

I took the pictures here by standing the camera on the layout, either on the track or another surface; this eliminates any shake which could spoil the image, and gives a realistic viewpoint. I was using an Olympus compact camera, which is small enough to take views that cannot normally be seen, as you could not physically get your head to that point. For more distant shots, a tripod is recommended. No lighting was used other than the daylight bulbs in the layout lights and the natural background. I turned off the flash on the camera, hence the longer time taken to record the image and the need to steady the camera.

The four images chosen here illustrate well the problems you face, and show how to get around them quite simply. I have a series of photographs stored on my computer that are simply landscapes, taken at different times of year and with different skies, but without much foreground detail. These are used to replace the unwanted part of the model photograph.

The software I use is quite old now, Livepix, which was designed originally for Windows 95. I am familiar with it, and it does all I need, although more modern programs such as Adobe Photoshop are more flexible.

Looking first at the photograph of the church seen across the river, the picture is spoilt by the very messy background, and the foreground is out of focus. The buildings are hardly noticeable against the roof and the people looking at the layout. The first job, then, is to remove the unwanted area by using the 'cutting' tool on the computer screen, tracing round the area to be removed until it is surrounded, and then clicking the mouse. Magically, the unwanted part vanishes, and the part of the image to be kept remains against a white screen. It is a bit complicated cutting around chimneys and so forth, but enlarging the image helps.

The next job is to choose an appropriate sky / countryside background, and insert it into the picture so that it lies behind the model image. It can be moved around until it lines up, and several can be tried until the best is found. I wanted a fairly neutral image here as the model was the important thing. When the background was in place, I next blurred the edge of the cut-out model picture as a stark line looked wrong; slight blurring makes the two images blend together and appear as one. It is possible to increase the brightness, or alter the colour balance, but I was happy with the picture as it stood. I added a simple green frame and that was that.

Some may argue that this is cheating, and that a picture should be left alone, but I am not trying to pretend that this is an image of the layout as it really is. I just wanted to make a photo of the model look as realistic as possible for my own pleasure. To me, it certainly gives a feeling of distance, far more so than in the original picture.

The second picture shows a view in the other direction, looking under the footbridge with the signalbox on the left. Again, the original has a blurred foreground and although the background is less intrusive it is not realistic. I wanted to alter this, but it was complicated by the fact that part of the background is viewed through the footbridge, and another section is behind the box. Three separate cut-out operations had to be done before dropping in a suitably bland sky that would not draw attention from the models. In this case it was difficult to blur the model image because of the signalbox and the bridge, so this was not done. With man-made objects for the join between the two images, a sharp line looks okay.