Photography is an art, and never is this more obvious than when you set about lighting your model train layout for some killer pictures. It's not simply a matter of flooding the area with light and see what happens, and it's not depending solely on your flash, whatever camera you have. What happens won't be good! Recreating natural outdoor light indoors is a tricky task and not one for the faint of heart!. Here we'll look into some of the ways you can make your model railroad pictures more lifelike.

Obviously if you have the ability to get your layout into natural sunlight, then you can be virtually assured of better photos. That's just not an option for many, however, so we are left with the task of duplicating the outdoors indoors!

The first decision you need to make is what kind of day are we trying to portray here: is it bright sunlight, gray and overcast, foggy (lots of fun!) or even nighttime? Or you may try a variation of any weather you can reasonably recreate. (Avoid ice storms!)

The basic method for recreating natural sunlight indoors on a layout is to use one 'sun', or lighting source, usually a halogen spotlight set as far away from the layout as you can manage, and using photo floodlights bounced off the ceiling and walls to create diffuse fill light.

One thing to be very careful of is to not create multiple shadows. Each object should have but one shadow, and it is pretty easy to create more than that with your fill lights if you're not prudent! Try not to mix different types of lighting, as this can lead to many problems in the way your colors are rendered, and it's nearly impossible to fix, even with programs like Photoshop.

The precise position of your lighting can play a crucial role in how your pictures look. If you were to go outside and notice the natural sunlight, there is direct light from the sun which bounces off everything to create diffuse, or ambient light. Lights aimed at your layout will have similar effects, with the direct lighting source acting like your 'sun'. The positions you place your direct sources can dictate times of day, also. Directly overhead and you've got high noon. Low, to the side or behind can help render early mornings or late afternoons.

Make sure you take care to balance your light sources, as too much of any one of either direct lighting, diffuse lighting sources or background lighting can make your picture appear off. (If you're shooting outdoors this is nicely taken care of for you!) If you make sure to do this and to make sure you've got your shadows aligned properly, then you'll be miles ahead of most amateur photographers who try and shoot their own layouts.

With the strides taken in the past few years in digital photography, almost anyone can take much better pictures. For truly outstanding ones, however, make sure to take some of these steps to recreate the outdoors indoors!