Old Pictures to Digital

[H0LLYW00D]

I have a large number of old pictures that i want to make digital and a friend of mine suggested placing each picture on a white peice of paper and then placing a peice of glass over the picuture and then taking the picture of the picture. Does this sound like it would work and give the best quality of images afterwards, I would be shooting in RAW so that i can touchup the photo later as a few are in desperate need of some processing after a few years in some non ideal conditions.

 

[Flash Harry]

Glass will reflect, scanner will be best or a copy stand, with lights. H

 

[phakimata]

For that purpose I use a scanner. I always make sure to place a few white pieces of paper on top of the photo in order to get the photo really flat on my scanner and scan at high res. This works really well for retouching those images from before the digital era.

I hope this helps you.

Paul.

 

[Sideburns]

scanner. A good one. Or you can use a negative scanner if you have the negatives (best option)

 

[H0LLYW00D]

i did a couple of test shots and i get alot of refelection from the glass plate as you guys had said, so i decided to shoot without the glass but i still get a refelction of the camera in the shot, is their a way to edit the reflection from the glass or the camera out?

 

[cameramike]

i'm assuming you dont have a scanner and thats why your stuck on taking a picture of it. Your getting a reflection off the photo? that seems strange, make sure you are ino a well lit room (but not to much light) and if you can put the camera on a tripod a good distance from the picture so you don't have any shadows zoom in to frame it and snap.

 

[Davec223]

I have a large number of old pictures that i want to make digital and a friend of mine suggested placing each picture on a white peice of paper and then placing a peice of glass over the picuture and then taking the picture of the picture. Does this sound like it would work and give the best quality of images afterwards, I would be shooting in RAW so that i can touchup the photo later as a few are in desperate need of some processing after a few years in some non ideal conditions.

This is a suitable way of copying photo's I have done a lot like this in the past with very good results, The main problems that you have are very easy to overcome.
Reflection off the glass, all you need to do is ensure that the lights that you use are at a 45degree angle to the glass and this will solve the problem. You need to use some powerful tungsten lights for this.

Reflection of the camera, again very easy to solve, get a piece of black card and cut a hole in the middle the same dia or slightly smaller than the front of your lens and always use this attached to the lens to stop the reflection problem ( you just push it over the barrel of the lens so that the tightness of the hole hold it in place). Also use a cable release so that you do not need to touch the camera and cause any camera shake when taking the shot's. My last tip is to use a grey card to take you meter reading from in manual mode and do not let the camera use it matrix/ pattern metering as you will get incorrectly exposed shots.

Also as said use a tripod and shot looking down onto the picture rather than trying to hang it on a wall to take the shots, You will always have problems copying pictures this way if you are only using natural light.

Hope this helps

Regards
Dave

 

[JerryPH]

Another vote for a scanner. Taking a snap-shot of a pic is going to give you poor results at best. And unuseable results at worst.

 

[Davec223]

Another vote for a scanner. Taking a snap-shot of a pic is going to give you poor results at best. And unuseable results at worst.

It will not of it is done properly, just takes a while to dial it all in the first time you set it up.

 

[JerryPH]

So much work for something so simple... and the results will still never be as good as on a scanner. But for someone computer-phobic or no access to a scanner and without other choices, it may be their only solution, I suppose.

 

[kalmkidd]

see how itd look with flash supressed.