Thoughts


I find it hard to use photographic backdrops. Most of the photos have been taken since the 1980's so the buildings are modern, the signage is modern, there are power lines, and satellite dishes, air conditioners, etc., etc. Since I model 1900-1905 there are just too many anachronisms in the photos to use or cut out.

I have just painted on my backdrops.
 
Page 3 (Am I sounding like Paul Harvey?)

The hands are not as steady as the used to be.

Man, I might have to change the name of this discussion to 'The Depressing Thread'.
 
While we’re on the photo backdrop discussion, what’s the easiest way to bend MDF. Is the a max thickness that will remain rigid when you need it to, but still flex for going around corners?
 
Your eyes fail you due to physics. I'll explain:

When we are young our eyeballs are roughly the same size as when we are adults. The difference between the two ages lies in the ability of our pupils to dilate with increasingly poorer light. As darkness approaches, everyone's pupils dilate to let in more photons. The distance across the pupil is known as 'aperture'. Increasing aperture means more photons incident upon the fovea, the part of the eye that sees details and colours. But as our pupils dilate, the greater aperture also lets more photons fall on the 'rods', those super-keen detectors that are able to detect movement and low light, but whose array prevents us from seeing details in darkness...at least not nearly as well as when it's light.

But wait! There's more!! As apertures expand, so too does the ability of the optical system, in this case our eyeballs, to separate small details that are very close together. This is called 'resolution'. Larger telescopes can separate tiny, faint, and very close stellar systems that are called binary stars, even triplets. It is thought that a great number of star systems are actually multiples, and that our solar system might be in a small majority.

There are stories of astronomers in modern times pointing out the planet Jupiter to their young children and saying a pair of binoculars would show anywhere from one to four small moons, appearing as tiny dots of light, around Jupiter. The parents are amazed to hear their children say, "Yes, I can see three!" Without binoculars. That is because of the wider aperture, approaching 8mm in some children, that actually allows them to see the Jovian moons.

Logically, and since we accept that our pupils will often only dilate to about 5.5-6mm when we are north of about 60, we don't get the same amount of light falling on our details patch, the fovea. We have to compensate indoors by having more lights on, and often we need 'reading glasses' that magnify everything. Further, our smaller apertures prevent us from separating closely set details, meaning that our ability to 'define' a scene is impaired. 'Definition' is at the heart of a good optical system.
 
The pinhole camera works because it forces a strong focus, but at the cost of a very faint image. What works for the pinhole camera is known as 'f-ratio', or focal length compared to the aperture. You get a strongly focused and magnified image, but it will be very faint and 'noisy' unless you are prepared to leave the opening uncovered for a long time. The human eye sees in real time, and can't improve it's sensitivity by staring at something longer the way a camera can that actually records photons. So....sorry, the pinhole won't work...it will actually make viewing a ton worse.
 
The latest in movie special effects is to replace green screens with actual video displays. It greatly reduces time in post production. Just imagine if the backdrop was a video wall. The trees could blow in the wind, the clouds would move, you could see the approaching storm. Day and night cycles combined with room lighting would be amazing. A road in the background could have moving cars and pedestrians. That classic scene with the firetrucks and IRS on fire would be scary. Changes of season or even location could be a couple clicks away. Operators with current time layouts could just use a video feed from the location they are modeling.
 
I was gluing a couple of pieces of wood together. The directions for the glue said it set in 1 hour, but “for maximum strength, let sit overnight.” How does the glue know whether I glued my stuff at 9 PM or at 5 AM that morning?
 
The only man-made structure on my 130-foot folded dogbone layout is the track itself, with a single train going round and round on it!

Everything else is mountains, boulders, smaller rocks, gravel, and a mountain goat and a wild horse.

HaL
 
The only man-made structure on my 130-foot folded dogbone layout is the track itself, with a single train going round and round on it!

Everything else is mountains, boulders, smaller rocks, gravel, and a mountain goat and a wild horse.

HaL
If he’s not near the horse, that mountain goat is going to get pretty lonely. Might want to find another goat so they do whatever goats do in the mountains
 
All the structures on my layout are man made even the mountains ...I know because I made them myself .

All the structures on my layout are all natural ...nothing not even the oil used to make the plastic was imported from Mars.
 
Thoughts, page 2:

Why, as we get older and better at modelling, do our eyes fail so many of us?
Mostly because our eyes were not intelligently designed. Unlike some species like some frogs where the elements of the eye move to focus, our eyes have to change shape to do so. If we look 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes, we can reduce that a bit, but over time the eyes are going to get less flexible and lose the ability to focus well no matter what you do.
 
I was gluing a couple of pieces of wood together. The directions for the glue said it set in 1 hour, but “for maximum strength, let sit overnight.” How does the glue know whether I glued my stuff at 9 PM or at 5 AM that morning?

Actually JD many of today’s glue manufacturers are now using the same space age time sensing nano technology as the laxative industry. This is how that little chocolatey treat you ingested earlier knows when to kick in at just the right moment.
“Ok wait for it, wait for it, and he’s getting on the bus... and NOW!!!😳
 



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