Archival project

Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 34

I've undertaken a public service project and could use some input.

The local community museum has a scrapbook collection of newspaper clippings from the 30's, 40's and 50's. The clippings were simply pasted into scrapbooks and are (duh) decaying rapidly. I've undertaken imaging the pages by way of conserving them while leaving them accessible to those wishing to use them. Hopefully the originals will receive proper storage.

The first volume has been shot as a test. It was shot using a handy piano as a copy stand under ambient room light. The results were actually better than I'd feared they'd be. I think the next step is building a proper copystand and rigging some sort of softbox lighting setup. I'm hoping better light and boosting contrast/sharpness a bit in camera will avoid the need for post processing . . . which would really get to be a time nightmare.

Anyone pulled this kind of silly stunt? I'd be interested in hearing alternatives both in capturing the images and software solutions for putting them on CD in a usable fashion. (usable, aka practical, pretty well eliminates buying Acrobat for this project)

Thanks

Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 269 Location: Santa Fe, NM

I have seen plenty of free and open pdf readers and writers -
OpenOffice.Org Writer for one.

Good Luck,
jd

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:19 pm

Are these clippings small enough to fit on a flatbed scanner?

Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 34

Quote:

Are these clippings small enough to fit on a flatbed scanner?

No, at least not my flatbed scanner. Size varies somewhat but most are about 12X14. It is a good thought, though . . . hadn't considered that.

Joined: 13 Jan 2007 Posts: 245 Location: Maryland

I used to do this kind of work for the government. Digitally archiving their documents.

What I would do is:
-setup a copy stand like your doing, I would skip the sb and use just 2 tungsten lights on copy stand. But hey, if your getting even exposure across the document plane, use the sb.

-bracket exposures by perhaps 1 stop each. Take 3-4 shots of each item.

-in your workflow, pick the best image of the 3-4 for each item, discard the rest. This will hopefully do away with having to post process images for brightness/contrast, or at least minimize the time spent, since you'll likely get 1 good exposure from the set. You can rapidly move through weeding the good/bad, even in Bridge using RAW.

I would use a sheet of glass above the documents to keep them flat, if needed. Lights are to the side, no glare w/ the copy stand.

Photographing the items will be far, far faster than a scanner. Once the lights are setup, it's just automation from then on. Set your camera for auto bracketing. Even if manual camera, still faster.

Depends on your desired presentation, you could make a html gallery and put this on disk, pdf document, flash presentation.
Several freeware and shareware programs out there that can create PDF documents.

hth,
Jacque

Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 34

Thanks, Jacque!

That's helpful info.

I'm probably using the term 'softbox' overly loosely. At most I was thinking tungsten through an umbrella, or perhaps simply a diffuser in front of a hardware store reflector light. Could be the diffusion isn't needed at all.

The project has been cooking on the back burner for a long time . . . I've just not been able to free up the time to do it. Along comes a young protege with an ummm community service obligation and the labor issues became a bit more manageable . . . but the process needs to be dead simple. The camera has autobracketing . . . an excellent idea.

I've gotten this under ambient light . . . which bodes well, I hope, for the final run.

Anyone have a hands on suggestion for freeware pdf editors?

Joined: 13 Jan 2007 Posts: 245 Location: Maryland

DapperSquirell wrote:

Could be the diffusion isn't needed at all.

Bare bulbs might give you a bit of extra contrast, and diffusion far as I know, is usually not used in copy work. I'd probably keep the umbrella a few extra feet back (and feathered perhaps) to make sure the light falloff is more even (inverse square law and all).
But long as your getting the results you want, stick with it. Light is light is light, it'll still work!

Quote:

Anyone have a hands on suggestion for freeware pdf editors?

CutePDF One I've personally used the most. (PC only)

Your project can be as simple as:
-autobracket 3 images for all shots
-use an image browser to select only the best image of each bracketed set
-having all your desired images in a folder, ctrl-A (select all), right click > print , point the printer to the CutePDF writer, and it's done.

Jacque