Message-Id: <200105291644.JAA28166@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 12:25:15 -0400 From: Mary Winter <mailto:mary.winter@MAIL.STATE.KY.US> Subject: Re: looking for a scanning aid To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
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Larry,
This seem's to be the classic argument for making medium- to large-format
(120 film to 8x10) analog photographs, and using a film scanner to capture
the images digitally. With proven permanence, human-readability, and high
resolution, analog surrogates should be considered. I believe the specs for
your camera are a maximum of 5140x5140 pixels, or a 75 meg file at 24-bit.
Basically, you can capture about 3 times the surface area on 4x5 (about a
240 meg. file), which could be scanned at 2000dpi (fairly normal for a 4x5
film scanner). That should eliminate a lot of time-consuming stitching!
We've found this fine for maps up to about 20x24--roughly, if you can see it
clearly on the transparency, you can capture it digitally. For larger maps
(up to 8 ft wide!), we either shoot overlapping 4x5s or 8x10s. When we do
need to capture multiple views of a very large work, we suspend it from a
frame, and move the frame along a tile floor grid, while the camera remains
fixed on a tripod.
True, a diminishing number of institutions still have the equipment, and
more importantly, the expertise to do such photography in-house. If you
can't photograph them in-house, then perhaps you could pursue a relationship
with a local studio.
If you need to go the digital way or no way, I suspect there are devices
that would work as you've described, probably used in animation or video
capture work.
Mary Winter
Mary E. Winter, Special Collections Manager
Kentucky Historical Society
100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 564-1792 ext. 4428
www.kyhistory.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Wentzel [mailto:mailto:lrw5@PSU.EDU]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 1:28 PM
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: looking for a scanning aid
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All,<br>
<br>
I'm scanning with a number of oversized materials (maps, foldout
illustrations in books, etc.) with our digital camera (Leica S1 Pro) on a
boom stand. Because I'm interested in detailed scans of these
materials, I'm having to scan them in pieces and stitch them together in
Photoshop. It becomes laborious because shifting the material under
the camera, by hand, sometimes, well, <u>usually</u> means I accidentally
place the material slightly askew. I have to align the images in
Photoshop before stitching, and the realignment takes up considerable
time. I've considered placing the oversized flat materials on the
wall and using the boom stand to move the camera around. However,
this won't work for bound materials, like foldout maps and
illustrations. And shooting objects mounted on the wall involves
additional time for camera setup and recalibration.<br>
<br>
I'm wondering is if there exists a device that I could place the oversize
materials, something like an adjustable table top platform. I
imagine it would have three boards: the top board shifts only left
and right, the middle board shifts only forward and backward, and the
bottom is the base. I'm hoping said device would also have locks or
something that would keep the boards in position once adjusted (adjust
12", lock in place and scan. Release, adjust again, lock in
place and scan, etc.). This way, the scanned pieces would be
already aligned to one another, eliminating the need to rotate the images
before stitching.<br>
<br>
If you've seen or heard of such a device being available commercially,
I'd love to know where I can find it. I'm also open to other
suggestions about how to get around this, and to find out what others
have done when they encountered this themselves.<br>
<br>
--Larry Wentzel<br>
--Digital Preservation Scanning Technician<br>
--Penn State University LIbraries</html>
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