Quebec Family History Society
	Research » Photographing Documents

I received my first digital camera in 1998 -- 1,000 pixels, very cutting edge! It delivers a superb 6x4 picture, a really nice 5x7, and a lovely soft 8x10 landscape. The 8x10 is too blurry for a people shot. But perfect for text.

My best library for genealogy research is downtown. Parking is expensive and I have to fit in between the rush hours while still getting a slot in the busy garage. I must make the most of my time there, so I take my camera and a small notebook for minimal notes. But, I have discovered that other researchers were not using this new tool, or having difficulties with file size.

Here are a few tips.

STORAGE -- bring a lot. You will fill a memory stick too easily. Either bring several or bring some means of downloading to laptop, Palm, etc. Mine is so old it uses floppies and I bring about a dozen.

PIXELS -- adjust downward. You want the least number of pixels possible. This is not a photo contest. Print can be sharpened up in the printing process, if needed. Smaller pixel count will get you more pictures. Best buy here would be the cheapest low-pixel count possible. I have a fellow researcher who advertised in her local paper and bought someone's old low-pixel camera. You want 2,000 or less pixels.

BATTERIES -- bring your charger. You will shoot almost nonstop and it eats up batteries. Most libraries have desks with plug-in spots for re-charging.

PREPARATION -- get your books first. Jot down every page you may want to record and then shoot away. Don't bother to read--just shoot. Save the reading to fit your leisure.

CLIPS -- are most important. Get some potato-chip bag clips to hold the books open flat without damage. Remember, you will do less harm than squashing a book in a copier machine.

REFERENCE -- take a picture of the title, author, and publisher page first, then click away. If you have to move to new storage in mid-text, snap the title again so you remember where you are. Label and/or jot a sequence menu. Sometimes SC looks just like GA or TN in print as they share so many county names. Label, label, label.

SHOOTING -- small books will get two pages to a shot. Stand up to shoot, with book flat on a table or chair so picture will not be askew and hard to read. Most books will need one page to a shot and some more. If you need two or more shots, be sure to overlap a bit of text so you know where you are when viewing later. Do not get too close. You can enlarge on the computer screen. Try to fill the viewing screen with all the text you wish to shoot and nothing else. The exception is a two-picture page where you need to back off a bit to avoid huge pictures of just a few words.

VIEWING, PRINTING, SAVING -- Now's the time to hit the magnifier for up-close viewing. Do not print your page in magnified position or it will not fit on the paper. Learn to crop. Get rid of the excess words, your thumb, and the cute plaid pants you wore to the library -- you don't need to waste the ink. Change the name now from "photo No. 7" to "SC Land Records-Jones" or whatever. Before printing, click "properties" on your print menu and change the setting to "gray scale." Old books tend to print out in strange hues of purple and yellow and are hard to read, and again, a waste of ink. If possible, now is the time to save the whole day's work on a disk and get the photos off your computer. This is not ordinary text storage. Photos are big files and can devour your available computer space.

In front of me right now are more than 600 pages of text containing references to one surname in my database. After preparation, it took me about an hour and a half to shoot these pages. Tonight I'm going to put on some music and read my way through the 1805 Georgia land lottery. Come join me.

Whilst I agree with Maryellen that digital cameras can be extremely useful for copies of records you find at the library, I urge anyone who is contemplating doing this to seek permission from the librarian first. I have always done this and am rarely refused, but occasionally I am told it is not allowed.

Sometimes the reason given is that the flash from the camera might damage an old document but I have come across one FHS who set aside a period each week when photographing was allowed but they charged for this and would not allow it at any other time. So please be careful, librarians are usually very willing and helpful people but they might take exception to breaking the rules. I would consider it to be good manners anyway to ask first.

From a QFHS member:

I agree with most of the hints, especially the one about asking permissions. I have never tried photographing pages myself, but I would recommend getting accustomed to your camera, and the results, long before you go to a Library and start shooting. Another idea is to bring a short tripod and shoot the pix vertically, with good light, instead of hand-held horizontally. There is a delay between the time the button is depressed and the time the photo is actually taken. In the hand-held situation it may result in a blurry and wasted pix.

From Maryellen

I've never had a blurry pic with 1000 or 5000 pixels. However, I agree about being familiar with the camera...and #1 is to start with an easy to use desktop publishing program...much easier than any of the photography programs for beginners...practise with a book at home at different distances...you can always delete the results. However, shooting straight down is best...standing the book up for tripod shots makes for bad lighting and skewed wording. . Really, the shots are surprisingly easy. Try it, you'll like it....Maryellen

From Sandra

I've had reasonable results with hand held. I've even had not too bad results with pics of film on a film reader, the only real drawback being the quality of the library film I was photographing and occasionally when I've not been careful enough, the reflection of the flash on the glass.

This of course is when the advantage of being able to see on the camera screen what you have just taken comes into play and can take again if necessary. These photos of original parish record entries of my family beat any written notes I could make. I'm not a clued-up photographer by the way, just a snapper.