Photographing bound volumes

Snapsh0t

Snapsh0t

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Jonathan
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As a volunteer at the local museum, my current job is to photograph the artwork so it can be added to MODES (the museum catalogue system). Coming up soon are a load of bound volumes that can't be opened flat, some small, some massive. We have a pair of foam wedges to hold the books at a suitable angle for viewing but they don't make photography easy. The best way I can see to do this is to put the book and wedges on the floor, angle the camera to do, say, the odd pages then change the angle and work back through the evens.

If anyone has any experience of this, I'd appreciate knowing if there's a better/'proper' approach. Other good ideas also welcome, of course.
 
Angeling the camera to the page sounds like the best plan , but I'd think to do it right you'd need a tripod with a section that can be set horizontal and a ball head. Once set up you could photograph as you've said , but as opposed to recomposing why not flip the book and shoot the page upside down and flip in pp ? But I guess whatever works better for you , I'm a bit left/ right dominant so this would work better for me ( or it could be my ocd kicking in lol.) The lighting of the pages would concern me more .
 
As no one has tried to reply... I would suggest your museum tries officially contacting other museums for advice, there must be others known for their book collections. . You could also approach University or establishments which train people as Archivists as part of that role is preservation of materials. You could also find out if the British Library has an archival department of its own,(or who they send out to) or perhaps try some of the older richer Universities to see if they have in house archivists working there. Institutions such as the National Trust may also have experience in this photography field.
 
You wait all day for a reply then two come along at once. ;)

John, some of the volumes are massive - the size of a large newspaper, three or more inches thick and leather bound. I understand that some of them are quite fragile due to their age so flipping them round for every shot is not an option. However, I wonder if one of those indexing rotators intended for panoramic work would let me flip back-and-forth between the two angles required so I could take both pages before turning the page. This may give me the excuse I need to buy one....
I agree that a tripod with a horizontal arm would help and I shall now kick myself for selling my Manfrotto 441.

Jay, good idea. I'll try to get the assistant curator I work with to make enquiries.
 
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Another thought - if these volumes are as old and fragile as you say, be aware not to handle them with bare hands as our skin oils and deposits can cause long term damage to paper etc. You will need to use gloves, I think they are usually white cotton. If you need to wash the gloves you may need to consult about what you can wash them in, as they too may leave unwanted deposits of detergent.. Being in a museum of course you are probably already aware of this problem and I am teaching you to suck eggs! :-)

It sounds a very interesting project. Seeing the original volumes must be amazing. What subjects do they cover?
 
What sort of resolution do you/they need? Might it be possible to have 2 cameras set up to shoot the opposing pages to reduce page turns? Maybe a local camera shop could be persuaded to lend the museum a rig (body, lens and tripod) for the duration of the shoot. If you have a suitable lens, I could lend you an old D70 Nikon if 6MP will be enough.
 
Jay, the museum has found that gloves cause more problems than they prevent and no longer uses them. Fortunately, from my years in the gun trade, I know I don't have 'acid sweat'. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the volumes opened yet. Apart from one small volume that I need to do soon I'm currently working through the mounted artwork in storage boxes. The one of Wilton House & Church was lovely; the two on Stonehenge weren't.....

Nod, that's not a bad idea. I'm currently using the museum's Canon 1200D (and 18-55mm kit lens) which has more than enough resolution. Thanks for the offer but I wouldn't want to go down to 6MP though, as the 1200D's 18MP allows us to crop as required. Also IIRC the D70 doesn't have a cable release socket and is CF in an SD card world. Alas, we no longer have a local camera shop and have to travel 20 miles to Bath, Salisbury or Swindon. I can always take in my RX10 if we do need a second camera.
 
Thats really interesting about the gloves issue. What problem did they find? When I last encountered a proArchivist she was meticulous over the glove issue, but times and discoveries move on, so maybe its less of a thing now?
 
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