photographing old or delicate documents and photography

Photographing Old or Delicate Documents and

Photos

Dick Eastman27 October 2012

Today’s Slides

Available athttp://www.eogn.com/handouts/oldphotos

Scanners

Advantages

• Inexpensive

• Readily Available

Disadvantages

• Scanning thousands of documents may be tedious

Page feed scanners are even worse

• Will work well in unattended mode but internal rollers may damage delicate documents.

Ultimate Unattended Scanner: APT BookScan

1200

• Will work well in unattended mode for books but not suitable for delicate books.

• Expensive at $120,000.

Use a scanner designed for books

• Planetary scanners create minimal page damage.

• Expensive at $10,000 and up.

Use a scanner designed for books

• Available in different models with different scanning speeds

• Expensive at $15,000 and up.

Another Option: Magic Wand

• Great for bound books!

• Battery operated• $99.95• Bed, Bath, and Beyond

• Brookstone• BestBuy• Amazon.com• and other merchants

Still Another Option: Flip-Pal

• Great for scanning photographs!

• Battery operated• $149.95• Mail order only, see the handouts or look at www.eogn.com

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Genealogists can duplicate this for a fraction of the expense.

• Use a camera stand and a high resolution camera.

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Genealogists can duplicate this for a fraction of the expense.

• Use a camera stand and a high resolution camera.

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Genealogists can duplicate this for a fraction of the expense.

• Use a camera stand and a high resolution camera.

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Best results are obtained with a slow shutter speed and lots of light.

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Prices vary from about $60 to…

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• Camera stand prices vary from about $60 to…

• $100 or more.

No Scanner? Use a Camera!

• The National Archives in London has replaced most of their photocopy machines with camera stands, always near windows.

You Don’t Need A Fancy Camera Stand!

• Use a tripod

• The secret for razor-sharp pictures is a steady platform

• Don’t have fancy lights? Always remember that sunlight works best

Recommendation

• Use a slow shutter speed

• And use lots of light!

• Sunlight works best

Top 10 Recommendations

1 Always back up your photos immediately!

2 Never, ever work on your original photo. Always make a copy.

3 Share your photos.4 Use the auto buttons.5 Crop creatively.

Top 10 Recommendations

6 Take credit, quickly.7 Black and white are beautiful.8 Don’t use JPG or GIF or other,

compressed formats for your working copy!

9 Open a photo and try all sorts of different things.

10 The best way to learn your photo editing program is to dive in.

The BEST Photo Editing Software Is…

1 The free program that came with your scanner or camera

2 Free software you can download (GIMP or Picasa from Google)

3 Photoshop (very expensive)4 Photoshop Elements for Windows

or Macintosh (about $80)

Today’s Slides

Available athttp://www.eogn.com/handouts/oldphotos