I have some old newspapers and would like to have them digitally available. Scanning them is not an option as I would need to cut them into pieces, scan them all and then assemble the scans just like a big puzzle. Too much labor intensive and also a complete loss of the original paper sheets.
What if I take photographs of the whole pages? Will the quality suffice? Is there any way I can do that easily?
Shooting at newspapers
(5 posts) (3 voices)-
Posted on 24 October 2009 - 20:08:12 #
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Why not having them scanned in the right manner by a professional service?
Posted on 25 October 2009 - 9:09:41 # -
Cutting the pages into pieces, scanning and rebuilding the whole page digitally will take a lot of time and effort and, in case you are going to process many pages or, worse, many newspapers, you will probably feel the pain. It will be a very complicated puzzle. But the results will be surely good. Even with the cheapest scanners on the market you can have a decent quality for your scans of newspapers. Just to give an idea, please look at these color pages, which where scanned using one of the cheapest Canon scanners available some 5 years ago; such devices are good enough for general purposes.
The idea of shooting photographs instead of scanning is not a bad one, and will save you a lot of time. On the quality side, be assured that you can have quite good results, provided that you can control the light sources and place your camera on a sturdy tripod.
Lighting is the key issue here. You have to evenly light the paper surface, and light has to be sufficiently angled (45° is the standard setting) in order to avoid reflections, and has to be a mix of hard and soft light thus allowing for crisp details and an overall low contrast.
Set the aperture to an average value (say f/8 to f/11), so to obtain a not too shallow depth of field and gaining the best performance from the lens.
In case you have a prime lens available, use that; consider that a normal focal length or a slightly long lens is better than a wide angle.Stick the newspaper page to a wall with some pieces of Blu-Tack, place your camera at some distance right in front of the paper, take care that the light hits the page properly but does not directly hit the lens (a lens shade might be appropriate).
Instead, you could alternatively lay the paper on the floor and rig your camera somewhere above it.
Mind to shoot with a remote control or a self-timer, in order not to shake the camera.
Also, double-check for focus (blow up some details on camera both at the center and at the border of the page, and check for sharpness) and exposure: you should find details both in the white paper and in the black ink areas.Posted on 25 October 2009 - 14:02:29 # -
This is a case where DxO software can help a lot.
Posted on 5 November 2009 - 1:01:42 #
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