starting from scratch
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Probably Photoshop Elements prog is the way to go .Adobe Photoshop is the accepted digital processing method though many others exist .Elements is the cheaper "amateur" version though it is enough for anyone but a true professional digital media processor .You can take your your chosen shot ,download it, and then crop and resize as it you require and then save .
I'll give you an idea of what it will do .I took a shot on my Canon G3 of a Rally plate on a 1/43 model car as I wanted to duplicate it as I had messed up the other one on the sheet .I shot it and then put it into Photoshop after saving it in its original jpeg form .I then erased all the detail in the shot except the actual image I wanted .I then blew it up (zoomed in ) to a huge size and removed any blurring and fuzzy lines .You can also adjust color ,and light .The Levels menu is a good way to do this .I then reduced it right down to a tiny size on the image resizing menu ,which can resize any image to exactly the size you want it to end up ,about 1/2 inch across and set up my cheap inkjet to print it very fine and slowly .Most ink jet printers can be set up for a custom setting that will make it very fine and detailed,in fact often the result is stunning compared to the standard setting. . .I then printed it on high quality gloss photopaper ,cut it out and stuck it on the model.It was as good as the original silkscreen decal . Photoshop is fantastic for altering and resizing digital and indeed scanned images .
.My daughter got a BA in graphics at the start of the digital revolution and showed me the ropes on our Mac.She is brilliant at it ,I'm slow.I used Photoshop 5 but Photoshop Elelements is now as good .Naturally the more expensive versions like Adobe CS will be even better but probably total overkill .There may be other programs but as I dont know them I cannot comment on them
hope it helps .
martin
I'll give you an idea of what it will do .I took a shot on my Canon G3 of a Rally plate on a 1/43 model car as I wanted to duplicate it as I had messed up the other one on the sheet .I shot it and then put it into Photoshop after saving it in its original jpeg form .I then erased all the detail in the shot except the actual image I wanted .I then blew it up (zoomed in ) to a huge size and removed any blurring and fuzzy lines .You can also adjust color ,and light .The Levels menu is a good way to do this .I then reduced it right down to a tiny size on the image resizing menu ,which can resize any image to exactly the size you want it to end up ,about 1/2 inch across and set up my cheap inkjet to print it very fine and slowly .Most ink jet printers can be set up for a custom setting that will make it very fine and detailed,in fact often the result is stunning compared to the standard setting. . .I then printed it on high quality gloss photopaper ,cut it out and stuck it on the model.It was as good as the original silkscreen decal . Photoshop is fantastic for altering and resizing digital and indeed scanned images .
.My daughter got a BA in graphics at the start of the digital revolution and showed me the ropes on our Mac.She is brilliant at it ,I'm slow.I used Photoshop 5 but Photoshop Elelements is now as good .Naturally the more expensive versions like Adobe CS will be even better but probably total overkill .There may be other programs but as I dont know them I cannot comment on them
hope it helps .
martin
The simple Microsoft Photodraw for Windows Version 2 will do all you need, Steve.
This was often included in 'Office' and was not very sophisticated, so any [probably 'Freeware' ] image manipulation programme will do it too.
You will need 'Crop', 'Resize', 'Cut', & 'Paste' controls at least, and 'Erase' would be useful too.
The basic stages are
1 Take your photo or find it. Use the highest quality setting on your digital camera.
2 Display the picture [Doc A]in your chosen programme, enlarge it so that the bit you want [eg a door]nearly fills the screen and 'crop' it. If indeed it is a door, you will be able to get very close to the vertical and horizontal edges you wish to keep. You can also erase little bits that you don't want to include.
3 Paste it to a new document in the same programme.[Doc B]
4 Resize it in Doc B using the programme to suit your scale, i.e., if it is a front door about 6ft-6" high, multiply 4mm by 6.5 = 26mm for OO, etc.
5 Cut and paste re-sized dioor into another document in the programme [Doc C] so that if Doc C were to be printed out on a sheet of A4 paper, there would be a little 26mm high door on it. If you want more identical doors, paste it as many times as you need! Repeat the process with as many other building elements as you need, until you have a collection of bits and pieces that you can choose from to complete a building project, available to print, cut out and glue to appropriate pieces of card to be added to your model.
Scaling the elements is the biggest challenge, remember for a rough guide, a brick is 9" long [0.75ft] so you could work out some dimensions that way. If I'm out with my wife who is 5'-4" tall and wish to photograph a particularly interesting building, I stand her right in front of it, cross the street and take the picture. Then in Doc B I estimate how many times 64" go into the height of the building, for example, and work from there.
I hope that helps, first get your programme and have a play wih it!
This was often included in 'Office' and was not very sophisticated, so any [probably 'Freeware' ] image manipulation programme will do it too.
You will need 'Crop', 'Resize', 'Cut', & 'Paste' controls at least, and 'Erase' would be useful too.
The basic stages are
1 Take your photo or find it. Use the highest quality setting on your digital camera.
2 Display the picture [Doc A]in your chosen programme, enlarge it so that the bit you want [eg a door]nearly fills the screen and 'crop' it. If indeed it is a door, you will be able to get very close to the vertical and horizontal edges you wish to keep. You can also erase little bits that you don't want to include.
3 Paste it to a new document in the same programme.[Doc B]
4 Resize it in Doc B using the programme to suit your scale, i.e., if it is a front door about 6ft-6" high, multiply 4mm by 6.5 = 26mm for OO, etc.
5 Cut and paste re-sized dioor into another document in the programme [Doc C] so that if Doc C were to be printed out on a sheet of A4 paper, there would be a little 26mm high door on it. If you want more identical doors, paste it as many times as you need! Repeat the process with as many other building elements as you need, until you have a collection of bits and pieces that you can choose from to complete a building project, available to print, cut out and glue to appropriate pieces of card to be added to your model.
Scaling the elements is the biggest challenge, remember for a rough guide, a brick is 9" long [0.75ft] so you could work out some dimensions that way. If I'm out with my wife who is 5'-4" tall and wish to photograph a particularly interesting building, I stand her right in front of it, cross the street and take the picture. Then in Doc B I estimate how many times 64" go into the height of the building, for example, and work from there.
I hope that helps, first get your programme and have a play wih it!
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