Large format "scanning" setup

[adamhiram]

See post #4. “This is a job for black duvetyne, velvet or felt.”

Seamless paper is reflective due to the smooth surface. Black duvetyne, velvet or felt have properties that reduce the light reflected off them. I have done this many times and paper will not kill reflections.

That makes total sense, and didn't occur to me about the surface texture - I've always used black seamless for portraits when I want a black background and can't get gray to go dark enough. I remember reading your original post and thinking I could make due with what I already had available. It looks like I'll be ordering some duvetyne soon. Unfortunately I can't just walk into a fabric store and buy a yard of it right now, so I'll probably end up ordering a 5 yard roll - hopefully I get some use out of it for other projects! Thanks for the great advice and explanation.

 

[Derrel]

My first thought was black felt instead of paper...JB photo covered this idea pretty well... I used to have about an 80x80 inch piece of photo-oriented " black velvet" which was more like black wool knitted fabric.

 

[adamhiram]

5 yards of duvetyne on their way. I’ll check back in a week or so when I have a chance to test it out.

 

[adamhiram]

Here is the final setup. I used 1 yard of duvetyne fabric (technically commando cloth) across the top with a circular hole cut out of the center to fit the camera lens. It's a little more challenging to attach and position than the large cardboard sheet, but is ultimately easier to store and transport. I secured it to the softboxes using medium binder clips. I won't bother showing a photo of a black piece of construction paper, but the reflection in the glass is 100% gone.


20200729-DSC_0978a by adamhiram, on Flickr

One of the uses for this setup is to capture some of my kid's artwork. Sometimes it's just a drawing on 8.5x11 copy paper, other times it is in various shapes and sizes.


20200729-DSC_0965a by adamhiram, on Flickr

However the main reason for this setup is to digitize some older photos that can't really be captured any other way. For example, this is a photo of my father from 1958 that is approx 11x14. In this case I was able to take it out of the frame to photograph.


20200729-DSC_0949a by adamhiram, on Flickr


20200729-DSC_0955a by adamhiram, on Flickr

But there are other, more challenging pieces that are in poor shape or cannot be removed from the frame, and need to be captured as-is. The photo below is of my grandfather from 1930, and is 15x23 in a very damaged frame with glass.


20200729-DSC_0959a by adamhiram, on Flickr


20200729-DSC_0963a by adamhiram, on Flickr

And that's about it! I have a lot of these to digitize, and I appreciate the feedback and guidance in configuring this setup to be more effective and accurate.

 

[JBPhotog]

There you go. Congratulations on the successful copy work.

 

[adamhiram]

One last addendum - using this specific setup with a 50mm lens, my digital images are the equivalent of approximately 300dpi scans, which is perfect for my needs. For smaller prints and documents, higher resolution is certainly possible with a longer lens (85mm works well on 4x6 prints), and of course stitching together larger images taken with a longer lens is certainly an option.