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Re: Opinions & Advice requested: tabloid-format Computist test page

Mike Maginnis wrote:

Taking Michael Mahon's advice, I tried a couple of test shots of a
page from one of the tabloid-sized (11x17) issues.  I haven't done
anything to it other than crop it down. 
I put one of the images up on my site:

http://www.computist-project.net/scratch/untitled-1.jpg

Opinions and advice are requested.  I'm thinking a good sheet of
plexiglass to flatten the pages, but I'm sure there are other things I
can do to make it look better.

If this works, it will speed up the process immensely (and I'll owe
Michael dinner - gonna be at Kfest?), as it took about 15 minutes to
photo the entire 40-page issue.  The current process takes more than
an hour per issue.


Mike, I'm glad that the process went much faster!

The image is quite readable as it is, but a couple of changes in
the process could improve them.

First, flattening is a great idea if it can be done easily without
introducing reflections (the lighting will have to be off-axis and
the camera and everything behind it will need to be kept dark).

Second, the lighting should be more uniform, produced by at least
two lights further away than the camera, at about 45 degrees to the
perpendicular to the camera.  That will help a lot with uniformity
of the background.

You may find that working on the lighting allows you to get great
results without flattening the page, which would keep the speed up!

The reason that improved uniformity is so useful is that it will
allow a quick "levels" adjustment in Photoshop (or even just slightly
overexposing in the camera) to drop out virtually all of the paper
grain that interferes so much with image compression, as well as
improving contrast.

Once you get a copying arrangement set up, with a tripod, lights,
and alignment marks, the process will go very quickly.  ;-)

Unfortunately, I won't be at Kfest, but I appreciate the offer. ;-)

Thanks to you, for preserving this excellent resource and making
it available to everyone!

(BTW, I've found my digital camera indispensable for making quick
copies of documents that cannot be easily scanned--like those that
are displayed in a case.  The lighting is catch-as-catch can, and
sometimes I have to take the picture off-axis, but Photoshop allows
all of these problems to be fixed with a little work.)

-michael

8-voice music synthesizer using NadaNet networking!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/