On Aug 12, 10:16 am, "Jeff Blakeney"
<jeff.blake...@a2central.com.remove-g8d-this> wrote:
To: Chris Morse
On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:04:25 -0700, Chris Morse wrote:
OK, I uploaded all the original images from the Graphically Speaking
book.
The album is here:
http://stoff.smugmug.com/gallery/5682920_GJaN2
The last image is a picture of how I set up the tripod. It was a
trial run, I feel like the images were at a slight angle, so the top
of the page seems slightly further away and better focus. I need to
experiment with camera settings to get a good clean shot, and see if I
can get it to point straight down (the tripod legs tend to get in the
way!) I'll try and experiment more tonight.
Wow, you must have a high resolution camera. Those images are very
readable. One suggestion for you tripod legs getting in the way, put
two legs by the table edge but have them shorter that the third leg that
is away from the table edge. This way the two legs by the table edge
can be closer to vertical. Here is some bad ASCII art:
[O] [O]
/|\ /|
/ | \ / |
/ | \ / |
/ | \ / |
/ | \ / |
Normal Tripod Tilted Tripod
If you were to have the tilted tripod stradle the corner of the table
(each shortened leg being on a different edge with the corner between
them) then the camera would be above the surface of the table and you
should be able to adjust the tilt to get it the camera perpendicular to
the table surface.
If you want to improve image quality even more, you could image just one
page at a time instead of two. You can still do this quickly by
starting with the cover and flipping pages to image all the odd numbered
pages then slide the book over and repeat the flipping to image all the
even number pages.
Just some thoughts that came to me after reading your message and
checking out your images. Use or ignore at your discretion. :-)
Good ideas, thanks. Actually, I have this little wooden box with a
sliding top and the top slides right between the tripod legs, so I can
get a flat surface directly under the tripod. No need to stradle a
table corner. The lens on the camera right now is a 28mm-135mm lens,
and at the widest end (28mm), the book overflows the camera frame (i
need to move the camera away), but I've got the kit lens that will go
wider (18mm-55mm). Yeah, single-page shots is fine, I don't mind
taking a few seconds to set up each shot. What I want is to keep the
images square (line the book up against an edge) and try and keep the
images similar in distance. A thick book would could be in inch or
more closer to the camera lens at the first page compared to the last
page. I'd need something like a springed surface that pushes the book
up (and holds it against, ideally) a glass front, and take the shots
that way. Kinda goofy, but once you get it working you can probably
shoot a decent-sizezd book in under an hour, which is pretty
reasonable.