Hello, this video is part of a series introducing key concepts about data collection for the From the Ground Up Research Project, a partnership grant sponsored by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and based at the University of British Columbia. For more about the project, visit our website at frogbear.org. This video is an introduction to basic techniques for photographing books and documents. There are many resources that go into far more depth about this topic. As techniques for photographing and documenting books and archival materials are very well developed, having been honed over decades by archivists and librarians. I particularly recommend the British Library's Endangered Archives project, which has detailed information about equipment and techniques. But often, the tools these groups use are not available to us in a field trip setting, where we simply don't have the time it takes to create the high-quality standardized images that many digitization projects involve. This video is geared toward taking pictures of a few documents or even a whole book in a quick and easy fashion. When photographing documents, your main goal is to create clear, uniformed images. This is easiest to accomplish if you start by finding a setup that will produce good images and can leave everything in place, changing only the document or turning the page. Ideally, your setup should keep everything constant, especially the position of the camera and the lighting conditions. The best position for the camera is directly above the document, pointing downward. Many tripods can be set up over a surface, either with a center column reversed and pointing down or with a horizontal support. You want the camera to be high enough to capture the whole document and at least a few extra centimeters on each side. A document will stand out best against the dark, unreflective background. A large piece of matte black cloth and some masking tape to hold it in place are very helpful. And the dark cloth is useful for other purposes, see our video on photographing objects for certain further uses. Alongside the pages of the document, you can photograph a ruler and a color chart like this. They give users of your photos important information about the dimensions of the page and the color chart lets them correct for variations in lighting conditions. Finally, it's important to make sure that the camera is parallel to the surface of the page. If they're misaligned, a portion of the page can be out of focus. Typically, this means that both the support under the document and the camera are horizontal. Some cameras or tripods have a built-in level to help with this. Any kind of focused light coming from one direction is likely to be uneven and to cause shadows. Sometimes ambient room lighting will be the best option. Natural light is not the preferred choice because it's variable both in intensity and in color so you need to continuously adjust to account for changes. If you're shooting in a room with windows, consider closing the blinds to block out as much light as possible. And while flash photography is possible, it tends to require a more complex setup, so I won't discuss it here. When the light is coming from directly above, the camera will tend to cast a shadow. The ideal illumination would be two diffuse light sources on either side of the camera at a 45 degree angle. Even two desk lamps can work. You have only one powerful light instead of pointing it straight at the page you can direct it toward the ceiling and it will be less harsh. Finally, it's extremely helpful to have a remote shutter control. Some cameras can be controlled from a computer or smartphone through a cable or Wi-Fi and will let you see a preview on your screen. Consult your camera manual for how to do this. A wired trigger is a good alternative. In either case, you want to set up your camera and take a few test shots, then keep those settings as you proceed through the pages or the document. It's also useful to have markers for yourself to identify the document. A simple technique is to write the title and other identifying information on a sheet of paper or notebook and take a quick shot of it before photographing the document. This is similar to the whiteboard we use for outdoor photography, but it's best to keep felt-tip pens away from valuable documents, so make sure to use pencil to take any notes around rare books or archival materials. These marker photos won't go into the final repository, but they will make it much easier to sort through your files later. You can also include a ruler and or a color chart like this one to provide scale and color information. Here are a few tips on setting up your camera. The best kind of lens for this work is a macro lens, which is designed to produce sharp close-up images. This is a 35-millimeter macro lens, which is ideal for such work. Cameras without interchangeable lenses may still have a macro mode, which you can usually access through a button or menu item with a flower logo. Once you've set up good lighting conditions, set the camera in place on the tripod. That way, you can set the camera to a fixed setting and every shot will be consistent. For optimal results, put the camera into manual exposure mode. Set the sensitive VG to a low ISO value of 100 to 200, and choose a narrow aperture setting, typically F8 or so, to capture the most detail throughout the image. Set up the target so that it's well centered in the frame, and there's a fairly wide border around the page, at least a couple of centimeters on each side. Make sure the lighting is even, and there's no glare. If there is, you can adjust the angle and placement of the lights. With the camera in manual mode, you'll have to adjust the shutter speed to find one that yields a photo that's properly exposed. Take some test shots, and once they look right, you can leave the camera on that setting, and every shot will have exactly the same lighting. Once you have everything in place, you can establish a rhythm of turning the page, shooting, and turning the page again. When photographing books, photograph every page, including the front and back covers. It can be impossible to get both sides to lay flat without risking damage to the book, so you might have to photograph the two facing pages separately. And if the sheet of paper is very large, you can photograph it in sections, making sure to take pictures with a lot of overlap, at least a third of the page, and to keep the camera in exactly the same position. The techniques I've presented in this video are the simplest ones for photographing books and documents during site visits. If you have more time and access to more elaborate equipment, you can produce even better images. For more detailed advice on how to run large-scale digitization project, I recommend visiting the website of the British Libraries and Dangered Archives program, which assists in the digitization of archival collections in under-resourced areas. They've published an open access book, Remote Capture, that contains a wealth of information on this area. Thanks for watching this video.