Recently, I was working on a patron request that involved photographing multiple foldout maps from a range of books. Foldouts in books are always tricky, and involve both conservation and photographic issues.
I like to work with a “First, do no harm” mentality when dealing with fragile materials; if I have any concern that they might be damaged during digitization, I head directly over to our Conservator. In fact, there were two books in this request that I did not photograph, because their foldout maps where either too fragile or too brittle to unfold (I find paper that’s been folded for over a century or so likes to stay folded).

Once I know that I won’t damage the foldout, the next challenge is to photograph it. This means supporting the entire foldout (usually with foam sheets) and making sure it’s as flat as it can safely get. From there it’s a dance of sorts to make sure the entire object is evenly lit (tough when you have creases that create shadows) AND that the entire expanse of the foldout is in focus (especially difficult when it doesn’t unfold completely flat).

We do sometimes run into foldouts that require photographing in multiple steps and stitching the pieces together. In these cases we are very careful to replicate the circumstances of each image exactly (i.e. with lighting and focus), and stitch the image together in Photoshop without changing the object in any way.

This image comes from Chisholm’s All Round Route and Panoramic Guide of the St. Lawrence: the Hudson River; Saratoga; Trenton Falls; Niagara … the White Mountains; Portland; Boston; New York, published in 1874. The book itself is five inches wide by 7.5 inches tall – the map is about 7.25 inches wide and almost 13 feet long. The vertical image on the left shows the length of the map, shot as nine separate images and stitched together very carefully in Photoshop.

Because the map was actually quite flat, I was able to shoot directly on our reprographic stand. Our camera is very high resolution (80 megapixels), as you can see with this detail shot, taken as a screen shot when the image was enlarged to 100%.

This map happens to be of the Niagara River, so we see Horseshoe Falls and even “The Maid of the Mist.” The entire map is this detailed, and it’s pretty amazing to see such a large map fold out of such a relatively small volume.

The map did photograph easily, but parts of the map had already torn (as visible in the long image, where you see some small breaks in the map). This went straight to Conservation after photography. Also visible are the color targets we include in each shot (I only included six of the nine I used; once for each shot). These ensure that our exposure, color balance and resolution are set properly to ensure an archival file viable for many future uses.

While many of the items we photograph are done in our studio, we do occasionally need to photograph items or objects where they reside at Brown. This is usually due to their size or other constraints that makes moving them too difficult. It then gives us the challenge to both light the object as well as safely maneuver ourselves and our equipment in a variety of spaces.

This is exactly what happened when I photographed this portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Peter Baumgras. Part of the Charles Woodberry McLellan Collection of Lincolniana at Brown, the portrait is housed in the Lincoln room at the John Hay Library. Beautifully framed, it’s a lovely portrait to shoot.

But it’s hung very high on the wall, at a significant angle, without a lot of space to photograph it without distortion. In came our portable lighting setup, our D-SLR (Canon 5D Mark II with 85mm f1.2 L series lens) and tripod, and Macbook Pro (for shooting tethered into Adobe Lightroom).

While the painting itself is opposite the camera (naturally), you get a good idea of my setup here — you also get a pretty good idea regarding why this is referred to as the “Lincoln room.” Due to the height at which the portrait is hung, I had to actually put my tripod up on a table next to the bookcases. I have two hot lights (tungsten-based) with shoot-through umbrellas, which allowed me to light the entire space without lighting the painting too directly. (The painting has glossy oil paint and a highly reflective frame, so keeping reflections to a minimum was essential.)

A closer shot of the setup shows the camera at an angle. This is not just because the painting is so high – yes, it’s way too high to shoot straight on with the camera, but it also leans forward off the wall by a few inches. It’s not a steep pitch, but enough that it’s easy to get an image that’s just not quite square (i.e. unacceptable).

You can also easily see here that I have the camera hooked up to a laptop for tethered shooting. This allowed me to check the focus, the angle of the camera, the white balance and the exposure all while shooting so I knew I had a usable shot before I packed everything up.

What you can’t see as easily in this shot is that I had to bracket, and ended up using two different exposures, combined into one, for the final image. I used one darker exposure for the bright frame, and a lighter exposure for the portrait itself, which has subtly textured shadows that I wanted to show. In Photoshop, I carefully made a path around the actual painting, and masked out the darker frame. Layered atop the brighter frame, we get the final image, which exposes correctly for both elements of the object.

1. Dark image, exposed correctly for the frame. 2. Light image, exposed correctly for the painting. 3. Detail of layered image, showing detailing in the frame and the painting.