Document Photography

[Chechenskie_Nemaje]

Hi,

What kind of photo machine would you recommend for me to take photos of official documents ? My desire is that clear and legible photos with high resolution, not so big and heavy photo machine to carry in my bag and a fast machine.

 

[Light Guru]

Hi,

What kind of photo machine would you recommend for me to take photos of official documents ? My desire is that clear and legible photos with high resolution, not so big and heavy photo machine to carry in my bag and a fast machine.

I work at a history library and photograph documents daily. I have never seen a setup that you can simply put into a carry around bag. Yes you could but the camera into a carry bag but good luck getting your camera stand, lights and light stands into that same bag.

To better help you find a solution more information is needed. What type of documents do you need to digitize, what size, are they bound etc.

 

[Designer]

Practically any camera that you can afford. Your other consideration will be knowing how to put the proper light on the documents and get some lighting equipment.

 

[goooner]

Depending on the documents, I think a scanner will be better imo.

 

[Light Guru]

Depending on the documents, I think a scanner will be better imo.

Scanners are much slower then camera setups. At the history library I work at we mainly just use scanners for photographs because you can get higher resolution from scanners.

Speaking of resolution if they are just text documents you don't need really high resolution. 300 or 400 dpi would be just fine.

 

[goooner]

Scanners are much slower then camera setups. At the history library I work at we mainly just use scanners for photographs because you can get higher resolution from scanners.

Speaking of resolution if they are just text documents you don't need really high resolution. 300 or 400 dpi would be just fine.

We have a multi purpose fax/scanner/printer at the office, and if I want to scan 50 loose pages I just load them in the paper tray, press scan and the 300-2400dpi pdf file appears in my scan folder on the computer when done/or USB stick. I can't imagine photographing them, and then sticking them together afterwards.

 

[Light Guru]

We have a multi purpose fax/scanner/printer at the office, and if I want to scan 50 loose pages I just load them in the paper tray, press scan and the 300-2400dpi pdf file appears in my scan folder on the computer when done/or USB stick. I can't imagine photographing them, and then sticking them together afterwards.

Ah I thought you were referring to a regular flatbed scanner. Yes a document fed scanner can be faster especially a good rotary scanner. But those require all pages to be uniform in size, and the pages can't be too fragile for the paper feeder may damage them.

 

[Gary A.]

Scanners are much slower then camera setups. At the history library I work at we mainly just use scanners for photographs because you can get higher resolution from scanners.

Speaking of resolution if they are just text documents you don't need really high resolution. 300 or 400 dpi would be just fine.

We have a multi purpose fax/scanner/printer at the office, and if I want to scan 50 loose pages I just load them in the paper tray, press scan and the 300-2400dpi pdf file appears in my scan folder on the computer when done/or USB stick. I can't imagine photographing them, and then sticking them together afterwards.

But a scanner doesn't fit as nicely as a camera in a bag. Recently my home office printer/scanner/fax broke and I replaced the larger Canon with an HP Envoy at about half the height, it does the same things and can handle multiple sheets via a feeder. Easily carryable in a shopping bag but you need a power source.

 

[Chechenskie_Nemaje]

Hi,

What kind of photo machine would you recommend for me to take photos of official documents ? My desire is that clear and legible photos with high resolution, not so big and heavy photo machine to carry in my bag and a fast machine.

I work at a history library and photograph documents daily. I have never seen a setup that you can simply put into a carry around bag. Yes you could but the camera into a carry bag but good luck getting your camera stand, lights and light stands into that same bag.

To better help you find a solution more information is needed. What type of documents do you need to digitize, what size, are they bound etc.

Photos of building projects. I have a photo machine of 16 megapixel but sometimes its not enough to take clear photos. Especially it is almost impossible to read some small font writings and calculations on projects. I need to take photos as quickly as possible and I have no time to create the right lighting, just imagine about Russian government departments to understand what I mean.

 

[Light Guru]

Photos of building projects. I have a photo machine of 16 megapixel but sometimes its not enough to take clear photos. Especially it is almost impossible to read some small font writings and calculations on projects. I need to take photos as quickly as possible and I have no time to create the right lighting, just imagine about Russian government departments to understand what I mean.

If you have no time to create good lighting then to be blunt forget about photographing the documents and getting useable results.

By building documents do you mean blueprints? Those can be rather big in size which means the lighting setup you would need would be bigger so again it won't fit into a carry along bag.

In photographing documents lighting is more important then the camera. If you don't have good lighting then even a 60 MP PhaseOne won't do you any good.

 

[bratkinson]

Perhaps the biggest issue in my mind at using a camera for high resolution copying is to make absolutely sure that the document is flat and that the sensor is exactly parallel with the document. I'd probably find some kind of easel with a flat-surface with a temporary holding-method to hold each document in place. Then with the camera mounted on a tripod to keep the sensor parallel for each shot rather than 'hoping' the camera is held correctly each time.

As for lighting, if you don't have, perhaps, 2 off-camera flashes available (one on each side of the camera), then, if possible, arrange the easel with document on it to get the most light in that room. But the camera still has to be parallel to the document. If there's a large window that floods the room with sunlight, use that for lighting and have your back to the window. That should still get a uniform level of lighting on the document.

As for capturing the smallest details, the tendency would be do get 'close up', perhaps 12-39" (.3-1m) away. My concern is that at those distances, you and the camera might be blocking too much light from hitting the documents. If space permits, I'd like to be about 6-10 feet (2-3m) away, and use a prime lens or high quality zoom lens to get the details. Also, as very few lenses are at their sharpest when wide open, I would use at least 1 full stop smaller an aperture to ensure more sharp results. For what it's worth, I used an EF 24-105 f4L from 10 feet away to take a picture of my boss holding a printed document and the typing on the document is easily readable.

 

[KmH]

Hi,

What kind of photo machine would you recommend for me to take photos of official documents ? My desire is that clear and legible photos with high resolution, not so big and heavy photo machine to carry in my bag and a fast machine.

Use a cell phone camera.

 

[Light Guru]

Use a cell phone camera.

Lighting is even more imported with a cell phone camera. If your going to use a cell phone at least get something like this to help m

 

[Chechenskie_Nemaje]

Do not you still have any advice for me to take photos of documents so fast and clear, and ofcourse not a heavy machine ? I'm waiting for you for 5 months.

 

[KmH]

Are you saying that in 5 months you've done nothing on your own towards finding out what equipment will work for you.