BCCA Project to update the USBC Books

[kruegerbock]

RB'ers,

The BCCA is in the process of digitally updating both of the USBC books. I am a member of the committee charged with managing these updates. During the CANvention I was asked if I could act as a liaison between the Rusty Bunch efforts to create beer can composites and the BCCA effort to update the books.

I would like to work with the owners of the composites in order to solicit digital photographs of cans for the book project. The cans we are most interested in are cans that are not in the either USBC or are incorrectly listed in the book. While I expect that the composites will seek to be more comprehensive regarding minor differences than the online book project will be, any photos of the cans in these composites would be valuable for the book update project.

USBC-I will probably happen more quickly, as the digital photographs from USBC are already available online at this website:

http://bcca-usbc-supplement.com/

We used a different publisher for USBC-II, and I believe we are still negotiating getting the digital images from them.

The composite spreadsheet includes a field where you can input page and can number information from various reference books. This would be useful information, particularly when the can is not in one of the USBC books. Verifying the existence of an “undocumented” can would certainly be helpful, and it might allow the BCCA to solicit photographs of these specific cans. We are also looking to correct errors in the books. One that I discovered is the brown 12 oz. Krueger Beer cone from Newark. The can pictured in the book is actually from Wilmington.

Although there will be people travelling to shows with photo boxes in order to take pictures of cans, it is the collectors themselves who will be providing a lot of the pictures. I am going to provide a description of the photographic guidelines for submitting updates to the books below. It is fairly involved, but at CANvention the supplement committee chairman (Bruce Gregg) made it a point to say that anyone with a reasonably modern digital camera should be able to provide usable images.

Moderators - please feel free to relocate this post to a more appropriate forum if necessary.



Photography Guidelines R2 for USBC Supplement

1. Use a Digital Camera set to 5 Mega Pixels with a preferable .jpg output.

2. Five (5) images will be taken of each can, rotate can clockwise approximately 90 degrees to take a total of 4 side images plus 1 can lid (top).

a. One (1) Face Cans
i. Label Centered
ii. Seam Left, Center on Best Image
iii. Seam Centered
iv. Seam Right, Center on Best Image
v. Can Lid (top)

b. Two (2) Face Cans
i. With Seam Left, Label 1 Centered
ii. Seam Centered
iii. With Seam Right, Label 2 Centered
iv. Center the intersection between Label 1 & Label 2
v. Can Lid (top)

3. Zoom lens in to enlarge image such that there is a small surrounding field of gray background. Max enlargement should not include an electronic zoom.

4. The .jpg file size should be in the range of 2.2 MB.

5. If your camera has a white balance feature, set it to match a white inkjet piece of paper in the range of a 96 brightness level.

6. Center of lens axis should be about 1/3 down from the top of a 12 oz. can and perpendicular to the face of the can. Please DO NOT photograph a can image that includes both the face of the can and a portion of the top of the can, since this distorts the image and will likely result in our asking you to reshoot the images.

7. Use an overhead fluorescent light if at all possible. If something else is used, please identify with the images sent. A flash should not be necessary.

8. Use an F stop equal to or greater than 6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/60 second.

9. Remove any can wrap that might be present.

10. Hold or Mount Camera parallel to can and maintain steadiness.

11. Use a photo box or equivalent to prevent reflections, glare, and movement

12. Hold your camera lens NO closer than 18 inches from the can to be photographed (This distance can also be effectively greater than 18 inches). This should prevent distortion of the can image. Being too close to the can you are photographing will give you something way different than a rectangle.

13. In ADDITION to the image, document and send the following information:
a. Brand Name
b. Identify the can number in the USBC V1 or V2 that is the closest to the can you are presenting.
c. State specifically the difference between the can you have photographed and the closest can pictured in the USBC V1 or V2.
d. Your name, BCCA #, phone number, e-mail address, and date.
e. Your best estimate of a Can Number consistent with the USBC Supplement Numbering System

14. Send Images & Description of Differences / Errors to:
a. Flats and Cones – John Page, jpjoeybo@aol.com
b. Tabs – Jim Wolf, jwolf@goeaston.net

15. Please send a copy (cc.) to Bruce Gregg, btgregg@earthlink.net and Al Aprea, ajaprea@verizon.net

16. Thank you very much for your contribution!

[cantankerous]

I went to the website link but my BCCA password does not work...??

[Rand]

Wow....great stuff! Would recommend that this post be elevated to General Discussion.....kinda burried down here in Composites...

Rand :-)

[kruegerbock]

I went to the website link but my BCCA password does not work...??

The website is under construction and will not go "live" for sometime. More features are being added, and the pictures from USBC-II are not yet available. I wanted to show that the pictures from USBC-I are already up there.

On the left side of the page, there are instructions for how to log in to the website. I do not believe that the features that require log in are yet fully operational. One such feature is the ability to store a database of your own collection online.

[renokenn]

This should probably be stickied

[idigrust]

Made as Global Announcement !!

[kruegerbock]

Some of the photographs have started to come in to the USBC Update Project. I have the owner's permission, so I am posting an example of the five required photographs for one can. The images have not been fully color corrected as of yet, but they should provide a reasonable representation of what we are looking for.

Seam Left

Opposite Seam

Seam Right

Seam

Top Lid

DSCN3566 (2).JPG (54.94 KiB) Viewed 46259 times

[stringsx24now]

Does anyone know if one of the boxes for photographing cans will be at Guzzle next month? I have a can not in the USBC II, but honestly the photography requirements seem too much for me to bother--my picture taking of cans is not that great. I would rather just bring my can (or two) to the show and have someone photograph them. It would make for a better standardized photo (trust me!)

[kruegerbock]

Strings,

I asked and I do not know of anyone planning to bring a photobox to take pictures of cans at GnT. If I hear that this changes, I will let you know. The BCCA Board meeting will be on Friday at GnT, so there will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions at the show.

This is me speaking as opposed to the committee - in my opinion the best thing about an online supplement is that the photos and information can be continuously updated. So even if your pictures (or mine for that matter - I have a bunch of cans that need to be added to USBC-II) are not perfect, they will do until better pictures can be provided. There is no deadline assoicated with publication of a physical book. Just documenting that the cans exist will be very useful to the project.

[Pokey]

How do we - for lack of better way to put it - challenge a can in the book as not being legitimate? For example, the red Blitz IRTP (1-039-27-0) does not exist. The red writing came out last, after the IRTP requirement ended.

We here in Oregon know this, but how do you PROVE it. You can easily prove the existence of a can with pictures, but how do you disprove the existence of a can?

[Sweeperman]

What is the status on this project? Is anything online yet? It looks like the last update on the BCCA website was 1 1/2 years ago ? Are there any pictures of cans online yet? Am I missing something? Anyone have an update.

[BeerCanRich99]

I just took a look at it. It looks like some real progress has been made!
If you click on the link in the original post it will take you right to the "main" page.
Move your mouse over the "Volume 1 Pages" or "Supplement Pages" wording near the top left of page and a pop up will let you pick Flats, Cones, etc.
Clicking on one of those will open up to the first page of pics.

The "Volume 1" links are digital images of the USBC book.
The "Supplement" link shows these images also, but adds in the new cans. The new ones are outlined in red right now.
Clicking on the can picture of a can will bring up a more detailed page on just that can.
Clicking on the can picture in that new window will bring up 5 images of the "new" cans, but still only 1 of the "original" book cans.
I'm guessing the plan is to eventually update the original cans with 5 images?

Starting to look pretty cool!

Rich

[J. Page]

I just wanted to clarify some things that Rich brought up. Volume One of the USBC will ideally be divided into two different sections. The first section will be under the link "Volume One Pages"
This section will be the original book images only. You will be able to click on the image in this section and it will bring up the Detail View page. The idea is for this section to remain static with no additional
information or images being placed in this section.
The second section will be under the link "Supplement Pages". This section will be where all the corrections will be made to any text data errors that were missed in the original book. This is also where poor condition
cans will be replaced with better cans as they are found. When a can has been replaced, it has been photographed using 5 images. 4 sides and a lid shot. Some of this has already taken place with many more to follow. Right now, we are currently trying to shoot photos of the cans that were actually pictured in the book. From there, it will be easier to determine what can was used and then we can look for variations.
If the text data has been changed, that section will be outlined in red and also highlighted so it will be easier to pick out. If just the image has been replaced, only the picture will be outlined in red. When you click on an entry where something has changed, it will take you to the detail view where you can see what has been changed highlighted in green. This is primarily the one and two-faced errors that occurred.

The heart of the Supplement Pages will be the new cans added. The numbering system has been altered to allow for 9 new entries between each can pictured originally. Any can that was originally pictured
will end in a zero. All new cans added will end in a number 1-9. You will also be able to see the 5-view of these new cans by clicking on the image in the Detail view. Any new can will have the entire box outlined in red
and highlighted. As cans are photographed using all sides, we are then making determinations on new cans and those are being added. Eventually, we will have enough cans pictured that we
will be asking for new cans that people have to be included.

Please keep in mind that everything is a work in progress and there are a lot of bugs to work out. There are also some other features being worked on the give some more functionality and ease of use.
Feel free to check it out. I welcome any feedback as well as input for any mistakes made in the original so that I can fix them in the Supplement Pages. You can either send me a message or email.

John Page

[BeerCanRich99]

Thanks for the info John!

Two items...

It seems there should be a hyperlink back to the BCCA Homepage somewhere on the USBC Book page. I didn't see one anywhere?

Also, I seem to recall reading something about how to create an account so you can use the "My Collection" feature. Is that on hold right now?
I can do the "guest" login, but that just shows me the 32 cans somebody else put in their virtual collection.

Is there a reason we can't just use our BCCA logins?

Thanks for the work you guys have been doing.

Rich

[kruegerbock]

The USBC Book Update page is still under development. I provided the link to the beta site here to give people a taste of what the future will hold when the update page is fully developed.

Once the page has been fully developed and there are a sufficient number of new cans pictured, there will certainly be a link from the main page, you won't have to sign on separately, and the BCCA will publicize the existence of the online update. There remains a lot of work to be completed.

Of course, the update will never be complete, as additions and corrections will basically be made forever.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please provide them to me and I will ensure that right people hear about them.

[idigrust]

If you have any suggestions or comments, please provide them to me and I will ensure that right people hear about them.

Although I truly value your comment Al, I also truly hope "the right people" are viewing the forum that is linked to "their" website.

[Pokey]

Two questions. I brought this up at the Board meeting here in Portland, but I thought I might restate them here.

1) have the cans in the USBC OI book been given numbers in the new numbering system?

2) since the Rainier Jubilees were essentially left out of the original book, how are they going to be addressed within this new numbering system? The 0-9 system is not expandable enough to accommodate them.

I would be happy to volunteer to work with the committee to help reign in the Rainiers.

[stringsx24now]

This question is kind of a repeat from my earlier question on this thread, but I still need to ask:

Will there be someone at canvention taking photo's of cans for this project? I can bring a can or two that was left out of the tab book to canvention if there is going to be a set up.

Anyone know?

[kruegerbock]

Don't know, but will find out.

[kruegerbock]

Strings,

I contacted the other members of the New Product Development Committee (which used to be called the USBC Update Committee or something lie that) and nobody is planning to bring a photobox to take pictures at Canvention.

[munchocmdo1]

One can in the book that is described very poorly is 197-7 Neuweiler's crowntainer. The difference in the can is the half moons around the top and bottom of the can. They are filled in solid brown. 197-6 they half moons are not filled in. The word Pilsener has NOTHING to do with the variation.

[jwcans]

OK, Another year in the Books.
Year after year we hear promises / stories of this new online book. I really don't mean this in a negative manor, but is anything happened to move forward this project??
I just think the BCCA creates more conflict for itself when saying it's going to do something, but it never happens.

[kruegerbock]

JW,

Check out this page: http://bcca-usbc-supplement.com/

Click on "Supplement Pages".

Everything on those pages that is bordered in red is "new", either a new can, a reshoot of a can that was already in the book (with 5 detailed, high resolution photos of each can) or a change in the descriptive information. I believe there are over 1000 "new" entries. Of course it could be faster, but if I remember correctly the first USBC took over ten years to produce.

The tab top book update is stalled because the printer will not provide us with the digital information needed to start the process. If you'd like to round up Moose and Rocco and pay the printer a visit, that might be helpful.

[JKW]

Hi Everyone,
This topic will be discussed at the next board meeting. We need to get the Vol.II issue resolved, and some photo quality issues licked. There will be some photography "out in the field" during 2014, I just can't say where/when. The photo box doesn't exactly fit in my hip pocket!
Jim W

[Sweeperman]

Hi Everyone,
This topic will be discussed at the next board meeting. We need to get the Vol.II issue resolved, and some photo quality issues licked. There will be some photography "out in the field" during 2014, I just can't say where/when. The photo box doesn't exactly fit in my hip pocket!
Jim W

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???????????ANYTHING HAPPENING??????????????

[Daev Larrazolo]

I guess not. Was the box set up at CANvention?

[idigrust]

Unlocked as sticky topic. 2 1/3 years old already.

[Uncle Jackson]

Almost no changes in the last year as far as I can tell.