Photographing books. Tips please.

You need to experiment at leisure beforehand if you’ve only one chance at the book….I’ve only used a bridge camera (Fuji s1500 on auto) for document scanning (eg at the National archives) and it’s incredible how tolerant it is with focusing, in fact the last time I was there I didn’t even bother to’ square up’ to the documents, shooting at about 20degrees off the vertical!….One problem I hit photographing a more important book was barrel distortion which is prevalent at the wide-angle end of a zoom (and hard to correct) so using a medium focal length if compatible with macro might be a good idea

I’d beware raising the spine of any book never mind one which is over 100yrs old, you will almost certainly damage it. Arrange some support for the book so when it’s open the binding is supported so that the book is in a vee shape. It’s not a good idea to have the book placed flat on a surface.

Make sure your f stop is in the middle of the range possible with your camera, this will give you good depth of field and reduce distortions. Put the camera on a macro setting if you have one. Experiment with white balance setting to get the right one. Ensure that you have ambient good light but not direct sunlight as this will damage the book. You shouldn’t need a tripod.

This method gives me good results at The National Archive, but then I only want to record not produce a work of art!

Regards

Good plan. But where do i get an 18% gray-card?

The Kodak reference is R-27. Available from many suppliers of photographic tools like http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/products/919/kodak-gray-card-r-27-set-of-2-grey-cards

There are several other manufacturers offering similar cards, but do not make the mistake to buy a grey-card which is especially designed for white balance purposes. Those cards (e.g. WhiBal) are often much lighter grey than 18% reflectance and when used for light-reading will result in underexposure.

Is it grey or gray ??? :confused:
Aerovet

In English it should be “grey”, but Kodak used to mention those cards “Gray card”.

I’d beware raising the spine of any book never mind one which is over 100yrs old, you will almost certainly damage it. Arrange some support for the book so when it’s open the binding is supported so that the book is in a vee shape. It’s not a good idea to have the book placed flat on a surface.

Make sure your f stop is in the middle of the range possible with your camera, this will give you good depth of field and reduce distortions. Put the camera on a macro setting if you have one. Experiment with white balance setting to get the right one. Ensure that you have ambient good light but not direct sunlight as this will damage the book. You shouldn’t need a tripod.

This method gives me good results at The National Archive, but then I only want to record not produce a work of art!

Regards

Wondering….

Is it grey or gray ??? :confused:
Aerovet

Grey card

Back in the old days, when we shot Kodachrome slides, Kodak greycards (in a set of two sizes) were sold through a (responsible) photo retailer…

Maybe you can ask your ‘photoshop’………

Good luck with this enterprise!

Aerovet

Use Manual for exposure setting! Take a gray-card reading (e.g. using a Kodak 18% gray-card or similar)

Good plan. But where do i get an 18% gray-card?

Use Manual for exposure setting! Take a gray-card reading (e.g. using a Kodak 18% gray-card or similar) and use this setting for all pages to get uniform exposures.

To make the page I was photographing lie flat I seem to remember improvising several techniques.

Near the beginning or end of a book, I would place thinner books underneath the low side, so the spine was raised, encouraging the page being photographed to lie flatter. Seem to recall weights and light metal bars did not really help the lie-flat issue and tended to get ‘in shot’.

With a large stiff book, with pronounced wave across the page when flat open, I’d raise the other half of the book to near vertical, so relaxing the side being photographed.

The need to get the page as flat as possible was not so much a focus issue as one of image distortion and light flare.

In the days when I was photographing photos from books it was onto 35mm colour transparency for use to illustrate talks or quizes – I had no option of digital cropping etc.

Yeah that does sound a bit odd. What I meant was if i couldn’t get the page to be absolutely flat then the high spots might be out of focus.

Depth of field with a flat book?

Hi Viscount,

Thanks for the advice. What aperture would you recomend to get good depth of field so its ll in focus?

Why not scan? That was me first thought but as the book is over 100 years old, opening it up fully to get a good flat scan could damage the spine. I may go down that route once I have seen the book and accessed its condition.

Tony.

A couple of tips from experience some time ago.

Found by removing a stopper at the end of the vertical extender on my tripod, I could reverse this ie hang my camera under the tripod, then move the mounted camera until horizontal – looking directly down. Once in position, zoomed (on macro setting) and focused I could safely take as many pictures as I wished – providing I ensured that each page was completely in the frame.

Beware of bright glare/shine from external light sources ‘burning out’ parts of the page. At least with digital any ‘burn-out’ glare can be noticed immediately – uneven and changing light was certainly a problem when working with film, as changes were not recognised until the prints came back.

Beware of uneven light or of shadows cast across where you are working. Tripod legs cast sharp shadows, your body blocks and alters the light too. Studio diffused lighting would help.

Seem to remember using a fairly high shutter speed to cut down on shake, even though using a tripod and cable release, and a fairly high f setting – using a tabletop (easier than the floor) in a bright room, but no direct sunshine. Working far too close to the image for flash – which is also likely to reflect off shiny paper or photos.

Be absolutely certain that the pages are at absolute right-angle to the camera. Be certain too that the pages lie absolutely flat (not easy when working from a book).

…… and finally, why are you taking photos of the album pages, not directly scanning directly into digital on a decent flat-bed scanner ? Direct, controllable, instant and usable directly to a printer, or processed through an image programme (Picassa, Photoshop etc). No contest for me, flat bed scanner anytime (I have a Canoscan 9000F which is great for the job, but my Kodak all-in-one does mean manipulating pages which may be undesirable). Using a camera and tripod is to increase the difficulty and produce less certain results!