Level with me - copy work

[JDMvW]

Copy work leveling

 

{This may not only be "macro", but I couldn't figure out where would be better.}

The best way to do copy work is probably to have a copy stand, macro lenses, etc. But sometimes you just want to do a "quick and dirty" copy with just a camera and a tripod.

A difficult part of this is getting everything "level". Some tripods and tripod heads have built-in level bubbles, but I confess this has never worked out too well in practice for me, anyhow.

Of course, you can always use a simple bubble line-level. In my experience they have a smooth bottom that works as well as the line holders so

You just mount the camera on the tripod, pointing downward and use the line level on the back of the camera, turning it at right angles to even everything up.

A fancier device is a multiple bubble level of plastic that is made to fit into the accessory flanges on the camera, so
 

This is one of my favorites. Isn't it beautiful? Of course it's nearly totally useless for the copy work problem, but what a dandy gem of an artifact.

There are better ways, of course.

 

Modern Photography 1985-05

 

That's all folks!

Edited November 21, 2022 by JDMvW

[nail33]

Using a mirror for leveling is about as easy as it gets when the working environment permits.

 

[hjoseph7]

I remember when there were Photography Copy shops sprinkled all over my neighborhood. This was actually a pretty lucrative field in photgraphy, but then it dissapeared all of a sudden. I still have some books on the subject and a few companies are still selling copy stands BTW. I'm not sure why they all of a sudden dissapeared since copy work is still viable ? Probably with the advent of Digital and Scannners those skills were not so much in demand anymore. 

[hjoseph7]

On 11/21/2022 at 11:14 AM, JDMvW said:

Copy work leveling

 

{This may not only be "macro", but I couldn't figure out where would be better.}

The best way to do copy work is probably to have a copy stand, macro lenses, etc. But sometimes you just want to do a "quick and dirty" copy with just a camera and a tripod.

A difficult part of this is getting everything "level". Some tripods and tripod heads have built-in level bubbles, but I confess this has never worked out too well in practice for me, anyhow.

Of course, you can always use a simple bubble line-level. In my experience they have a smooth bottom that works as well as the line holders so

You just mount the camera on the tripod, pointing downward and use the line level on the back of the camera, turning it at right angles to even everything up.

A fancier device is a multiple bubble level of plastic that is made to fit into the accessory flanges on the camera, so
 

This is one of my favorites. Isn't it beautiful? Of course it's nearly totally useless for the copy work problem, but what a dandy gem of an artifact.

There are better ways, of course.

 

Modern Photography 1985-05

 

That's all folks!

I never tried it this way, but I once had to copy some photo's from a wedding album so I could show a wedding photography agency copies of my work. I was living out of state at the time and had minimal copies of my work. A couple of years earlier I was the photographer at my Nieces wedding,  but she had the album printed and did not have the original files and neither did I. So I asked her if I could copy some pictures from her wedding album.

I used a quick and dirty with a tripod to copy the photos almost like the one above. I basically eye-balled the whole set-up, since I didn't have any levels . It was very tricky to say the least. The biggest problem was the lighting, due to hotspots and reflections. I winded up using plain old daylight, because it was cleaner and more even.

Still I had to wait for a certain time of day when the sunlight was not overbearing. That's why it took me about 3 days.  Another problem was trying to get every single part of the image in focus. Sometimes the camera would move just a little and the corners would turn out blurry. To set the camera off, I had to use the self-timer on the camera, or the remote control, that was the only way.     

Edited November 28, 2022 by hjoseph7

[JDMvW]

In digital work, a flatbed scanner of good quality does very well too.

Many such scanners will do a real 1200 ppi, but an 8x10 inch subject file gets very large that way.

300ppi is a plenty good compromise for many things.

Edited November 30, 2022 by JDMvW