copying very old black and white photographs

I need to copy some very old black and white portrait
photographs. They can't be scanned because they are mounted
in glass frames and are very fragile. They are borrowed and
I cannot take them out of their enclosure. I must make do
with them under glass.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 950 that I don't think will help
me here. Please let me know if it can.

My other camera is a Canon AT-1 that I haven't used in
over 20 years. I have a set of macro lenses for it, and
remember copying photographs with it. I used some special
b&w slow speed film as I recall, and a tripod, lighting,
and aperture shutter speed guesses or tests.

Helpful suggestions on how to best copy these pictures
is welcome. e.g. what film, aperture, shutter speed
should I begin with?

Or, assuming I'm going to need to do this more in the
future (I have begun some serous genealogy), should I
bite the bullet and buy a digital SLR? If that route,
what is an economical digital SLR? I suppose that if
I bought a Canon digital SLR, I could use the handful
of AT-1 lenses I have?

Thanks in advance for advice!

John

 

I have used a flatbed scanner to scan framed material that
was too delicate to take out of the frame. The quality of
the scans was surprisingly good. It is worth a try.

 

I have used a flatbed scanner to scan framed material that
was too delicate to take out of the frame. The quality of
the scans was surprisingly good. It is worth a try.[/QUOTE]

Scanning is a good idea -- but a lot depends on the depth of field of
the scanner's lens. This can vary quite a bit between brands.

If you do decide to use film in your AT-1, use a fine grain low-speed
film such as Kodak TMax 100 or Fuji Neopan 100. Unfortunately Kodak
discontinued Technical Pan years ago. When shot at ISO 25 it was almost
completely grainless.

If you don't have access to a copy stand, mount the pictures on the wall
and use very diffuse light from both sides at about 45 degrees. You may
still need a polarizing filter to get rid of all reflections in the
glass. You should be able to use a polarizer with your Coolpix; it may
take some creative use of gaffer's tape.

An old trick is to take a large piece of black matte board, cut a hole
in the center the diameter of your lens, and mount it so that only the
very end of your lens pokes through. This will get rid of most 90 degree
reflections -- such as you and your camera!

As far as exposure goes, use an incident meter and then compensate if
what you are copying is either very light or very dark.

Good luck!

--k

 

Since you have a set of macro lenses for your AT-1, you will have no problem
using it for copy negatives. Lighting the pictures under glass will be
difficult, but not impossible. Use two or more lights at 45 degree angles to
the picture. A more shallow angle may be easier. Frankly, I would use a film
camera for this project, as the negatives will be easier to store and more
robust over the years. If you shoot with digital and burn to CD/DVD, you
will have to re-copy every couple years to provide for any deterioration of
the disk and to convert to whatever storage medium becomes popular in the
future. Your negatives, on the other hand, can always be viewed by holding
them up to the light, and printed either optically or scanned.

As for using your AT-1 lenses (Canon FD mount) with a Canon digital SLR,
sorry, no. You will need an adapter, which has a 'helper' lens in it to
provide infinity focus. This helper lens may or may not be of equal quality
to your Canon lenses.

 

Thanks all for the sage advice!

I looked up the Nikon Coolpix 950 manual. When I got it
I didn't need the advanced features, so I forgot it
actually has a macro ability. In the interest of time
and money budgets, I'll be exploring that to copy the
old pictures, at least at first. Since the photographs
are not in excellent condition to start with, this
approach may be adequate.

The lighting tips were particularly helpful, and the
note about needing a lens adapter should I ever get a
Canon SLR for the AT-1 lenses. This kind of removes
any Canon constraint when I do choose a digital SLR
vendor.

Thanks, John

 

One thing you might try in order to avoid reflections of your camera in
the center is to shoot from a bit of an angle then do perspective
correction on the computer to square it up. Of course you'll lose
resolution on one side but as you say there may not be that much detail
anyways.

 

How come the polarizing lens doesn't take care
of all of the glare? Thanks, newbie.

 

The polarixing lens only get rid of the glare that is pokarized at right
angles to the lens.

 

I have taken pictures of old pictures with pretty good success, as long as
you're not looking for technical perfection, assuming you want them for
something like a Family Tree Maker album or something similar.

If photography interests you at all, you'll never be sorry for buying a
DSLR. I have Nikons and am totally satisfied, but I doubt that any of the
popular brands would disappoint you. I just saw a D40 with a kit lens for
under $500 and they all have entry level DSLR's in this price range now.

The Canon web site should provide you a lens compatibility chart, but you
won't use them much if they're not autofocus once you try the kit lens.

 

Thanks : -)