I wanted to simulate the sun coming up behind the Lomax Lumber Company enginehouse on my HO scale modules.   I placed a sheet of orange cardboard behind the enginehouse and lighted it from below with a regular household light bulb.   To get the viewpoint of someone walking up to the structure, I had to place the camera on its side and right on the module.  Since I could not see what the camera was pointed at, I needed to make several exposures and check the resulting images on the cameras' rear LCD screen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Left)This is the resulting image.   There was too much out of focus in the foreground, so I cropped the image to get the final one below:

 

 

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While the DSLR is the best choice for model railroad photography, that does not mean smaller cameras cannot be used as well.   The two above photos were taken with my pocket sized Pentax Optio S10 digital camera.   It has 8MP and a 7X optical internal zoom lens.

 

 

Here's how the photo of the HO scale Trackmobile was taken.  On my workbench, with a piece of white cardboard underneath and rolled up behind, with a reflector on each side of the model.  Camera on a tripod, white balance set for the fluorescent desk lamp (the round black item at the top), and the shutter tripped with the self timer.   It can be done!