thomas and friends mini series

wow! what camera setting did you use to do that? i tried a few times to get them glowing, but at best i got a large amount of black with maybe a faint green line here or there.

those are the best glowing photos ive seen!

(09-20-2016, 07:43 PM)sunhuntin Wrote: wow! what camera setting did you use to do that?

Well the settings themselves were a 4-second exposure at ISO 200, f/5.6 or f/8, and a bounced-up-and-behind-me flash (I don't know the GN or exact ceiling height) at 1/8 power, in a pretty dark room (I could see well enough to walk around in after my eyes adjusted), but it was a lot of experimentation to get there, so the process is probably more helpful:

• I started with regular "product" photography for all my minis: a tripod for the camera and a plain-white background (just a sheet of paper) and the room dark enough that the only light came from the flash (bounced up and behind me, off the ceiling) at full power; f/8 and 200 ISO and aperture-priority mode so I think 1/125 or 1/250.
  
• For the GitD minis I dropped the flash power, by experimentation, so there was enough light to show the details but without getting a fully-exposed photo. Setting the flash power to 1/8 seemed to be about right; neither 1/16 (couldn't see well enough) nor 1/4 (the glow wasn't prominent enough for me) turned out right.
  
• I played with the aperture a little and might have settled on f/5.6 instead of f/8 but I don't remember. It might have just let too much light in from the flash and "dulled" the glow in relation.
  
• I turned on the 2-second timer and put the camera in manual mode with a longer shutter speed to get the glow to expose after the flash was off. 4 seconds ended up being about right; 8 had too much noise and at 2 the glow wasn't really bright enough. There was a little bit of light from the TV and maybe a tiny bit from outside (the moon) but most of the light in the long exposure part should have been coming from the glow off the minis.
  • I shone my big flashlight on the minis for about 45 seconds before each picture, to "charge up" the glow. 20 seconds wasn't enough (I'm not sure Charlie got enough charging, for example).
• I tried changing the aperture a little, but was constrained by depth of field with the lens/distance I'd chosen; I never tried changing ISO because it's too hard to change with that camera but that's a good way to give yourself a little freedom one direction or the other.
  

The Thomas picture was one of the earlier attempts, with slightly-different settings (I think just ~10-15 seconds charging it up, and maybe a lower-powered flash or narrower aperture)

They look great Drew! Great work!

Hi Everyone,
I am sorry, I am super late to the party, but did anyone find out a way to build a display or rack unit where we can hang on the wall and put the minis for display?
I have been keeping mine in those 32 slot (30 usable) bead boxes, but I 've already outgrown those and I think I wasted enough money on those boxes.

I am thinking of building something with a plywood back, sticking the pictures of the trains and then the actual trains on the front, so I know which ones I am missing, and where each one goes.

Also, does anyone know if the stores still sell 2016 Wave 1 or Wave 2? I've checked WM and Target in the area, they are all 2016/3.

I am not sure exactly the size of the Minis but wouldn't any of the Hotwheels/Tomica/Matchbox display cases like this one work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Wheels-Match...SwBahVY85y

(09-22-2016, 08:27 PM)Super Wrote: I am not sure exactly the size of the Minis but wouldn't any of the Hotwheels/Tomica/Matchbox display cases like this one work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Wheels-Match...SwBahVY85y

Thanks, that looks great, a bit pricey for the amount of trains we can put on it, but looks good. I'd prefer something slotted, but with this we should be able to fit things like launchers, etc as well. I was thinking about a big frame and buying those foam filler type of sheets, making cut-outs and sticking trains in there, as alternative.

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(09-17-2016, 04:42 PM)drewbenn Wrote: Speaking of images... I just added them to my checklist page. You can click on any of the engine names (in the blind bag list) and get a small picture of that engine. I took most of the pictures from the thomasminis wikia (thanks jdogman!... and sorry for filling up your logs with 404s last night while I was trying to automate the fetching ). There are still a few dozen engines that don't have pictures; I'll get those added as I have time. In the meantime, if anyone sees anything else that's broken (or just doesn't seem right), please let me know!

So you are the hero behind ixbyix? I had no idea, I've been using your site (and submitting some comments, time to time) for a while now. Thank you so much for your great work, it's an amazing site, and it saved me hours of work, trying to figure out what I am missing my collection. Now I print it, take it with me, in case I stumble upon a Walmart or Target or TRUS, I just glance at my list and grab what I am missing (in case I ever see something that I am missing, most of the time I ended up going home only to find out I already had it!, with your site/list, no more duplicates, no more disappointments. )

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My most recent suggestion/comment was to link the re-releases, so if we put a checkmark on one, the other gets checked too, but I went through what I have and manually checked all re-releases already.

(09-22-2016, 07:55 PM)Pablo392 Wrote: I am sorry, I am super late to the party, but did anyone find out a way to build a display or rack unit where we can hang on the wall and put the minis for display?
I have been keeping mine in those 32 slot (30 usable) bead boxes, but I 've already outgrown those and I think I wasted enough money on those boxes.

I am thinking of building something with a plywood back, sticking the pictures of the trains and then the actual trains on the front, so I know which ones I am missing, and where each one goes.

The absolute best display case I've seen so far is the beautiful display OttawaQ shared with us that looks like it's just a few 1x2s, or possibly 1x3s, maybe routed to provide a guide for the front wheels, and put together so much nicer than anything I can do (the things I make are never quite square, let alone jointed so neatly).

(09-22-2016, 09:05 PM)drewbenn Wrote: The absolute best display case I've seen so far is the beautiful display OttawaQ shared with us that looks like it's just a few 1x2s, or possibly 1x3s, maybe routed to provide a guide for the front wheels, and put together so much nicer than anything I can do (the things I make are never quite square, let alone jointed so neatly).

Thanks, at first I thought it was a pre-made rack he bought, that looks really clean. I do have a dremel tool, but like you, I am not that good at carpentry. I can probably make a little ditch for rack to hold the trains, but I might end up splitting the wood, or causing uneven hole, and looking at my trains one sitting higher than the other, driving me nuts. I was thinking of gluing a thin strip instead of making a cut.

(09-22-2016, 08:32 PM)Pablo392 Wrote: I've been using your site (and submitting some comments, time to time) for a while now.

It's always nice to hear from someone who's using it I do read, and appreciate, all the feedback, even if I don't act on it. You're not the first to ask for the re-releases to be linked to the original releases, and I've got some ideas percolating in the back of my mind but I'm still figuring out how to make it work only for the people who want it, and never for the people who don't, and then how to explain that to everyone.

(09-23-2016, 12:10 AM)drewbenn Wrote: It's always nice to hear from someone who's using it I do read, and appreciate, all the feedback, even if I don't act on it. You're not the first to ask for the re-releases to be linked to the original releases, and I've got some ideas percolating in the back of my mind but I'm still figuring out how to make it work only for the people who want it, and never for the people who don't, and then how to explain that to everyone.

Do not worry about it. It's not a big deal, it's just people like me being picky. It literally took less than 2 minutes for me to CTRL+F each italicized re-release and have Firefox/Chrome highlight these, so I can just put my checkmark next to them. There are a lot of things you can do, but to be honest people should be asking so much of you, you've already done an amazing job.

It's easy to ask for things that one might assume so easy to add, but you've already done a lot (highlighting packs, that's brilliant), and sometimes simple does it much better than fancy looking websites/scripts. If there is already a thread on your website somewhere else or on this forum, can you point me there, so I don't bother you with things in other threads like this one.

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