Reflections

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have been experimenting with adding reflections via the computer. This is my 32 feet to 1 inch (1:384) scratchbuilt RMS Carmania, with a water refeltion added.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob,

When you say "adding reflections", I take it that you mean to photos of your models, and not below the actual models in their cases?!

The effect in the photo above is very nice, I must say, and the angle from which the photo of the model is taken makes it look just like a photo of a real ship taken from a distance.

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 10/02/2017 07:03:56

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Try a few of your sailing ships, Bob

The sails will look quite nice

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

The Carmania, above, was photographed out of the case from a low angle, and the refelctions added using a free software programme called Sqirlz Water Reflections. (Find it via Google) You can make them move, add snow or ripples etc. All very basic, and it is obviously done on a computer, but I quite like the effect. I am not sure it would look right with a sailing ship under sail, as the refelections are really meant for stationary objects, but I can give it a try. Here is a model of the barque East African, at anchor. The programme is simple enough to use, but it took me over a week to find out how to save the image as a jpeg once it had been made! In the end, it was quite simple, but a common failing with computer programmers and geeks is the attitude "Everyone knows that, so there is no need to tell you!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you Bob…..A handy programme for the odd occasion

May be useful for tidying ship photos with unwanted objects etc

They used to say……."A photograph cannot tell a lie"

Not any more, hey?

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob (Abell, that is),

Photos have been able to lie for (almost) as long as they've existed! A classic example is this one **LINK** which, after they had fallen out of grace in the Stalin era, was retouched to remove Trotsky and Kamenev so that they should not be shown as having been in Lenin's presence.

On a rather less sinister note, another example would be my father, who had a birthmark on the top of his lip; nothing disfiguring or anything, but a clearly visible birthmark; in my parents' studio-made wedding photo from 1965 it has been very expertly retouched away, as was, I think, common practice in those days …

Bob (Wilson, that is),

The "but everyone knows that" fallacy of thought is a very common one, and far from limited to computer programmers (although they are indeed heavy sinners on that account). One of my pet peeves here in Belgium is the seemingly innate inablity of local authorities when sign-posting their roads and local facilities to even for a moment try to enter into the mind of someone who has not spent his or her entire life in their village, and might not know that what used to be Jones Hill is now Smith Valley or whatever.

My wife and I once went to see Flemish stand-up comedian Bert Kruismans, who did a very nice riff on this theme: his line of work, he said, takes him to Parish Halls and Cultural Centres all over the place. On leaving the motorway on his way to a gig, he would find both village and hall well signposted, a bit further they would still be prperly signposted, same again yet further, but as soon as he got within about a mile or two of his goal, all signs would disappear, because "if you don't know where you're going, what the **** are you doing here anyway"!

Mattias

 

Edited By Banjoman on 10/02/2017 09:11:44

Edited By Banjoman on 10/02/2017 09:12:25

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Another, more on-topic, reference to the difficulties of "everyone knows that" would of course be model boat kit instructions! I have often found these to be prime examples of the difficulty in not taking your own knowledge and skills for granted when writing for other peoples' benefit …

Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Mattias – Very true!

I tried the reflections with a model of the tea clipper Norman Court, under full sail. I was pleasantly surprised by the result and have called it "Becalmed"

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Mattias,

I suppose I am guilty of that as well! Trouble is, since the age of about 15, I never found scratchbuilding all that difficult when compared to kits, and assumed that everyone else would feel the same, but the most common statement is "I could never do that" so they don't even try! I have always been spurred on by people telling me I couldn't do things, and that has helped me a great deal to actually do them!

I took up writing because I was told I was "illiterate" by my chief, when editing the ship's newspaper aboard various passenger liners about 50 years ago!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Bob……Wilson, that is

I too find scratch building the easier method of boat building

On the rare occasion of a kit build, I tend to read every single word and carry out the instructions to the letter and get very annoyed, when they don't make sense!

Banjo

Your mastery of the English language is most impressive and I'm beginning to think you are a member of MI5 in disguise, James Bond style and we don't know the full story?

Tongue in cheek btw……..And you'll know what that means too!

All the best, Bob………Abell, that is

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