GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

I recently lost my husband and I had made him a memorabilia scrapbook. Many family members have asked if they could get a copy of the book. While it is possible to send the pages out for scanning, I would be very nervous about something happening to them. After scanning, they would have to be printed, then bound into a book. I have done some research and scanning would be about $2/page. There are 98 12x12 pages for a total cost of $196. I could send the pictures to SmugMug for printing at a cost of 5.95 each. Doing a book this way would cost about $780, not including the book itself. I also checked Shutterfly and a printed book would range from $187 to $335 Of course, the most expensive option at Shutterfly would be the closest to a copy of the original book.

Another option is to buy a large format scanner for about $700 and print them myself on my Canon Pro10 printer. One set of ink would cost $134 but I have no idea how many sets of ink I would need to print 98 pages. I already have the paper. I think that this may be less expensive than SmugMug. This would be more costly initially, but I would have the scanner to make copies of the other 30 scrapbooks that I have done. Those I could save digitally to reprint if anything ever happened to the original scrapbooks.

After a little more research, I came across the idea of taking pictures of each page, instead of buying a scanner (that I don't really have room for anyway). The article I read, suggested using a macro lens (which I don't have), and a copy stand (which I also don't have). So, I thought about using a lens I own on a tripod with the page beneath. The hardest part will be to assure that the camera and page are perfectly parallel. I could then import them into Lightroom for minor corrections and print them.This would save the almost $200 cost of scanning and I wouldn't have to worry about the originals.

Has anyone ever done this and what suggestions would any of you have? These are the lenses that I own:

55mm f/1.8
16-35mm f/2.8
24-105 f/4.0
70-200 mm f/4.0
35mm f/1.4
85mm f/1.8
12-24mm f/4.0
100-400 f/4.5-5.6
135mm f/1.8

Thank you wonderful hoggers in advance!

User ID

You could give family members each a printable digital copy, preferably a PDF.

They can enjoy it on-screen or they can pay their vendor of choice to print all or part of the book. Maybe some will choose a certain special page as a poster print and enjoy the rest digitally. Just one example of why not to print a whole book for other than yourself. It’s even cheaper to give some members a tablet than a paper copy if they need a PDF reader.

BTW if the original is a typical black page scrap book, you need to alter that background to just a pale texture (ghosted wood grain ?) or else the printer will consume enormous amounts of black ink, and heavily inked areas can also locally warp the printed page.

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

Lots of good ideas. And, yes, it is a black page scrapbook. I didn’t even think about the black ink consumption.

Thanks!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Are the images easily removable from the album?
Another way would be to scan them.
Then "photo books" could be made by Costco, Walmart, ...

Otherwise, if using the camera to copy, pick a lens that comes closest to filling the whole frame.
Pages should be as flat as possible.
If you use a glass plate, make sure the light illuminating the pictures is on an angle so not to cause reflections in the camera.

ddgm Loc: Hamilton, Ontario & Fort Myers, FL

I am in the process of copying minute books of our Lodge that date back to 1845. The size of the open book is 12" x 16". I am using a Canon 5D III and 24mm -105mm L lens on a tripod with camera slung beneath. The distance from the book to the camera lens is about 13". I tethered the camera in Lightroom to take the pictures using a small Canon 270EX II flash, then crop them in Photoshop CS6 to the page size. I haven't printed any, but see no reason why I couldn't. This is so I have a backup of the records and I will give flash drive copies to several members as security. Copy stand and Macro lens may be better, but this setup works very well for me.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

Instead of a physical book for your relatives/friends, perhaps give them a digital photo frame and a thumb drive with all the photos in JPG format. Less expensive than a book. I have a NIX photo frame for many years now, and run a continuous loop of about 700 pictures at 5 seconds each (the time for each can be selected by user). I also have it set to shut off if no motion in front of the photo frame for 5 minutes. When someone walks by, it recognizes the motion and turns itself on again. I also have it set to go OFF during nighttime sleeping hours.

See: https://www.nixplay.com/

There are other manufacturers of photo frames, but in my research, I believe that NIX is the best quality.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

1. Perhaps it is possible to rent a large format scanner for a lower price.

2. My Olympus cameras allow me to make 80MP images which will allow for preservation of details. The resolution from a scanner can be higher but is probably not necessary. Indeed you only need adequate resolution to make life size reproductions of the pages.

3. You will need a copy stand of adequate size although a wall can be pressed into service if you can secure the pages to the wall. I have a artists easel that can be made completely vertical. I have used this to copy paintings. Lights arranged for copying are also necessary

4. A macro lens may be required for copying. Macro lenses have almost no pincushion or barrel distortion. I would check your 85mm lens to see how bad the distortion is when copying a flat object. You can use use an extension tube if necessary.

5. Once you have made a press quality pdf using Adobe Acrobat you may find that Lulu.com is a good choice. Lulu can publish in a variety of formats or you can distribute the pdf yourself.

ELNikkor

I've done this many times. You don't need a macro lens, though I have used mine often. Just get the set-up as square as you can and shoot under an adequate and steady light source. Look at the photo on your monitor and tweak the exposure, (having the camera set on manual!). When you get it right for one page, it will be right for all of the pages. Even 6mb jpegs will be sufficient, no need to go whole-hog full res, as these photos will not be for big blow-up wall hangers; just fond memories. Put the photos in a digital folder and send the folder to all of your relatives. They can manage the images as they please, that way the entire project costs you an afternoon's work, and them however much they want to spend on having their own photo book made or whatever.

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

I have used Shutterfly for several books. I usually get the 11x14 with max pages and design with individual prints. Usually 6 or so prints per page. Most of the time I use black background.

Once finished with design I wait for a sale of 50% off and unlimited free pages and free shipping. The cost is somewhere around $40 per book. Last book I made was of our family thanksgivings from 1990 to 2020. It showed the growth (aging) of both the people (kids) and family. When I finished the book I made it available to all family members and told them to wait for a sale and what sale to look for. Of course they didn’t have to wait and a couple didn’t. They could/can view on Shutterfly website and not print at all. We did buy one for each of our kids and for my mother in law. The aunts, uncles, cousins were on their own.

If your scrapbook is individual photos it would probably work best if you can scan/photograph each individual photo at a high resolution.

Anyway. Good luck with this project.

Chuck

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

You don't say what camera you use so assuming you're shooting full frame, use the 55 f1.8 , order a set of close-up lenses to fit the 55. Google homebuilt copy stands, I built my own copystand for about twenty bucks, not counting the cost of a tripod head and Bogen Super lamp I already had.
Shoot the album, make digital files, give your family a link to the files and they can pay for their own prints.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

No don't order a set of close up lenses. Most are of very poor quality. The lens selected may focus close enough or a small extension tube can be added to allow the lens to focus closer without degrading the optics. Just watch for barrel and pincushion distortion.

RonMe Loc: San Antonio

Well now, I can tell you that what you want to do is a significant, but not impossible task. I recently finished doing something similar with a scrap book my mom put together regarding my dad during WWII. I am what I'll describe as an advanced amateur photographer and I ditched my full frame Nikon D750 for a Fuji XPro-3 camera. I honestly think nearly any interchangeable lens camera will work and you will need to experiment with which lens is the appropriate focal length. I didn't use any special lens, but I would caution to stay away from shooting wide open (i.e. 1.8, etc) as some of the page may not be sharp.

The problem I faced was that the pages of my scrap book didn't fit on my Epson V850 scanner. In most cases what wouldn't fit was blank page so I was still able to scan. But, there were many pages that I couldn't scan as there was content that would be missed. I tried many different options to include using a tripod-mounted camera. The main problems I encountered were getting the pages aligned with the camera lens and lighting. I finally purchased a Glide Gear OH100 Professional Metal Overhead Table Top Mount Stand from Amazon for about $200 and lit the pages with a HAVOX professional photo studio box that I already had. At that point I had a workable solution but also a significant investment, even if you don't count the scanner. The problem that I had to deal with on every page I photographed was lighting, even with the photo studio box. I'm thinking natural lighting would be good, but I just don't have anywhere in my house that is appropriate.

Please note that it is my opinion that you don't need a very expensive scanner such as the V850, but the bundled software sure did help with fixing defects as I scanned the pages. I also had to do a bit of post processing (I used Capture One). Believe it or not, the main challenge I had was keeping all of the scans and photographs in order. The solution I landed on was taking a quick and dirty page-by-page photo, and that sure helped! I also backed up all of my work on Dropbox after each work session.

My project now sits on Mix Book's web site waiting for one final review. I will print it some day soon. Good luck!

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

You have received some great suggestions here. I agree with those who suggest you make digital versions of the images available for those who are interested to look at and print if they choose to do that. I also want to offer my condolences for your loss. Perhaps you could share an image or few with us here on UHH if you would be inclined to do that. Despite being strangers, we are family here on this forum in a digital sense. You can tell this by how much we quibble with each other.

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

The pictures are not removable. The actual pictures were scanned before the album was created, when I had a decent scanner. I will experiment with my lenses and set up; but I was hoping for some advice along those lines. I will put the scanned or photographed pages on thumb drives for the family. They can view them or print them to a book. Their choice. Thank you for the info.

dragonswing Loc: Pa

I would be curious where you can get 12x12 pages printed for $2. I asked at Office Max and they quoted me $25 a page, which is outlandishly high.