DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I had some large photo albums in which the photos were glued in. I have a scanner that has a removable cover. That enabled me to place the album flat on the scanner. The album was larger than the scanner so each page had to be done in sections. The photos were fairly small so I could arrange the album so that if a photo was only partially scanned in one scan, the next scan would get the whole photo. That way I could take the result and make a number of crops to separate the individual photos. The scanner was set to a fairly high resolution so although the individual scans were very large files, the crops were a reasonable size.

I have photographed documents (paper with text) on occasion and found that the scanner would have done a better job. Scanners are designed for documents and provide good contrast for black text on white paper. The camera, on the other hand, takes a large expanse of white and cuts down the exposure so that it comes out grey. Of course you can adjust the camera to compensate for that if your camera has those controls, but the phone camera isn't as easy to adjust. The phone camera will work in a pinch, but you will probably want to adjust the result in post unless all you need is the text to be readable.

Nicholas J DeSciose

When you are further away is easier to light the document correctly. One light on each side at 45° using exposure meter to determine that’s evenly lit from side to side top to bottom. For best results learn how to do cross polarization This means a polarizing filter on the lens and polarizing filters of the lights. The 105 mm macro lens is optimum

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Assuming you have a macro lens, you can get as close as needed to include the entire document in the viewfinder.

How close is determined by the size of the document and the focal length of the lens. If it’s not a macro lens, then the close focus limit of the lens may be the limiting factor.

Most smartphones can be used to copy and FAX documents. Look for an app…

Barbara Ruth Loc: St.Pete Beach, FL

THANK YOU, I’LL FOLLOW THOSE SUGGESTIONS

Barbara Ruth Loc: St.Pete Beach, FL

I WILL TRY THAT. WOULD NOT HAVE THOUGHT A MACRO WOULD BE GOOD FOR PHOTOGRAPHING LARGE PAGES. THANK YOU

therwol Loc: USA

Every macro lens I've owned has the capability of focusing very close (1:1 or 1:2) and all the way to infinity. I've used macro lenses as normal lenses for general photography. They tend to be very sharp from corner to corner. I could take a picture of a penny with one, a picture of your face or a landscape. Do you have a macro lens available to you?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If the pages in your albums are removable, they can be kept flat.

Here are some principles of copy work that may help:

> Use identical full-spectrum photo grade lights on either side of the copy, at 45° angles.
> Put the camera on a tripod or copy stand to keep it level and parallel to the copy.
> Use a short macro lens (best), or a close-focusing normal prime lens with diopter "filter" attachments, or a short zoom lens with a macro mode.
> Use a moderate aperture (f/4 on Micro Four Thirds, f/5.6 on APS-C/DX format, or f/8 on full frame cameras).
> Use a 2 second self timer or a remote release or a wireless release to avoid camera vibration
> Use an electronic shutter on a mirrorless camera, or the mirror lock-up on a dSLR to avoid vibrations.
> Capture raw files and post-process them for best quality.
> Use a manual exposure and a custom/manual/pre-set white balance in reference to a Delta-1 gray card
> Include a color checker chart in your test image so you can nail the color in post-processing.
> If you have an incident light meter, measure light intensity throughout the frame and adjust the lights so the exposure is within 0.2 stop across the entire field.

I've done more copy work in my life than I care to remember... everything from yearbook pages and covers (for a yearbook company) to single photos and album pages, to artwork (2"x 3" up to 4' x 8'). We had a monster 14' overhead rail copy camera I set up for the lab I worked for. We used that set up to copy paste-ups of class composites. In all these applications, the principles were the same.

The attachments show a test image and a final copy of a piece of my son's early artwork. I made these in an "emergency" situation with minimal equipment... Two clamp lamps from Home Depot with cheap 100W equivalent 5000K LED bulbs. Exposure was 1/40 second at f/4 at ISO 200. My camera was mounted on the bottom of the center post of my tripod. The slow shutter speed was necessary to keep the flicker from the cheap lamps from being an issue. If you're not using better lamps, keep the shutter slower than 1/60 second (US power line frequency).

Final test exposure after doing manual white balance and exposure control

(Download)

Final image

(Download)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Macro lenses are "flat field" lenses, made for very low distortion. They are the best for copying anything of any size. I use a 30mm f/2.8 Lumix Macro (equivalent field of view to a 40mm Micro Nikkor on DX/APS-C, or 60mm Micro Nikkor on FX/Full Frame). When I used film, I used a 55mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor on a Nikon F3. My copy stand used two 600-Watt incandescent quartz lamps that were oppressively hot to work around.

TimHGuitar Loc: San Francisco, CA

This reply pertains to Retina. Barbara is planning on copying (small. I would guess) old family portraits. Retina replied about copying a family painting, I think, and he makes a good point. If copying an oil painting, then scanning it would not produce as nice a reproduction as a copying with a camera, I believe. When setting up lights to evenly light the canvas you can also place lights away along the edge of the painting in order to capture the texture of the painting's brush strokes. A scanner would not be able to do this. One can also adjust the amount of effect by the placement of the various lights. Sometimes a lot of texture is desired and sometimes less. I've found, also, that a good distance is needed from the artwork to be copied. This is in order to photograph the artwork "squarely," if there such a word. When copying too close, the very edges of the rectangular artwork will "buckle" outward slightly. A flat field lens indeed helps. I've used enlarging lens for this purpose in the past with a separate shutter behind the lens. The focal length I've always used have been one that is longer rather than shorter. It also allows for more distance between the camera and artwork.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

DJBAD

I've photographed a lot of old documents and found that they never lie flat. I used a sheet of non glare plexiglass on top helps with this. Use a tripod to help reduce the distortion.

Chock A Locka Loc: My imagination

I am an amateur genealogist gathering and preserving old photos and documents for my family tree project. I have some limited experience photographing documents but much more experience scanning.

I have 2 flatbed scanners. One is a printer/copier/scanner 3 in 1 device which I use for smaller items (No larger than 8 1/2 x 11). The other scanner is for much larger items.

Hands down, the scanner does a far superior job than me attempting to do hand held photography.

Scanner can produce .jpg or .pdf files for whatever PP I may want to do.

Not trying to say a camera can’t do what you want but a scanner is my goto setup.

OldSchool-WI Loc: Brandon, Wisconsin 53919

Lenses for copy work are specially designed for perfect focus and clarity over the entire view area. For instance documents were always photographed by Photostats and by Xerox machines. Both used extraordinary lenses. Photostat machines could be six or eight feet long with 18+inch lenses by Eastman. Xerox used Rodenstock lenses. A good enlarger lens is of similar design as one would expect. As other contributors have said--avoid zoom lenses if possible as they are not designed for clarity over a set space like a copy or enlarger lens. Try your 50mm regular lens. Take a "screen picture" from a book or magazine and copy it and see if you can make out the dots from side to side----if so---you are all set. Of course it goes without saying---even lighting---copy stand or tripod.----ew

Barbara Ruth Loc: St.Pete Beach, FL

Yes, I have a 60mm Olympus macro. I’ve been taking photos for years and NEVER realized that I could do more than close ups with it. I will definitely give it a try. Thank you

Barbara Ruth Loc: St.Pete Beach, FL

I have an Olympus camera so will use that. Will experiment with prime lense and macro. Thanks for the advice