How to photograph a page of text

[Diski]

Can someone tell me what camera settings to use if I want to take pictures off a magazine of text with some black & white photos interspersed. The magazine is basically a historical local information on days of community life in Ireland back in the early 1900s.

I am trying to photograph about 150 pages, then copy onto a CD or DVD to preserve it and use for my own genealogical purposes.

I have tried every which way I can to fugure out what the settings on the camera should be, but usually I get a bad yellow tint, shadows, blurred I basically waste at lease 50% of my pics. I also have to ask should I use a flash or not?

I work out of my home office that receives a good deal of sun but dont know if thats good or bad for taking pictures.

How do I stabalise the magazine and still hold the pages open so that the text closest to the binding is also clear to photograph.

How do I hold the camera stable every time I take a picture? I have a mini tripod that doesn't seem to hold it in the position I need it to be.

Thanks so very much,
Diski

Using a Pansonic Lumix DMC TZ3

[zona5101]

This is kinda of what you want to get to...lights at a 45 to reduce glare and provide even light. Ability to move the camera up and down is good especially if using a fixed lens. You will need at least as much height in your stand/tripod as the minimum focusing distance of your lens. With the light set up similar as shown, exposure should be pretty much what your meter says.

[BBenson]

Decent scanners are pretty cheap these days, and can do a better job than shooting with a camera. Can even OCR the text for you.

[Footski]

I agree. I have tried several times to photograph documents but unless you have all the equipment similar to that shown by Zona5101 you are better off using a scanner...

Barry

[Diski]

Thanks very much Zona5101, for the visual-it definitely helped.

I do have a Lexmark All in One with a scanner but to be honest I haven't tried it since I have about 10 of these magazines I want to preserve. Its seemed to be very slooow way to go about it, but as BBenson and Footski stated, its better quality so it would be worth it.

I'll give the scanner a try- thank you all!
Diski