Mark Friedman wants to know how to photograph rare books, and
what kind of stand to use so that books are not damaged in the
process.
 
While working on a dissertation on 16th Century Illustrated
French books, I developed a variant of the standard copy stand
that permitted me to photograph from books as large as folio edi-
tions and as small as 16mo ones.  The stand was a small amateur
copy stand with a composite board base and a tubular camera sup-
port to which was mounted a high quality pan head on a rack-and-
pinion slide.  The stand came apart for portability.  On top of
the stand I placed a movable table covered with felt that could
be slid front and back and from side to side.  The table stood
about one inch above the copy stand surface.  It was supported by
an x-shaped support that ran from the corners to the center,
leaving most of the perimeter free to attach fastening tools.
The x-shaped support also helped to keep the table flat.
 
Books were fastened to the movable table with a variety of
weights and clamps.  These devices were used to hold the book in
place, and to keep the pages parallel to the picture plane.
Weights were made of iron fastening strips glued and covered with
felt and of felt tubes (snakes) filled with shot.  Carpenter's
spring-loaded clamps (rubber covered) were also used to hold the
pages down and/or the book open.  Because these clamps (they come
in two sizes) can exert potentially dangerous pressure on the
spine and boards, they were fitted with long screws running
through the handles.  A wing nut bearing down on the handle was
used to control the amount of pressure exerted by the clamp
itself.  The clamp pressure was sometimes distributed by insert-
ing a small felt-covered bar between the clamp and the book page.
 
Lighting was supplied by standard 100 watt (not photo flood)
bulbs.  It was important to keep the surface of the books cool.
A toggle switch connected the bulbs in parallel or series,
depending upon the fragility to heat of each item and the dis-
tance from bulb to subject.
 
Film was Panatomic X, and long exposures were used whenever
necessary.  Because a panchromatic black and white film was used,
there was no issue of color temperature.  A grey-scale and a
linear scale was photographed at the start of each roll, and
whenever possible, in the margins of each photograph.  Usually,
however, means were taken to insure that each photograph was
taken with the same scale of enlargement.  This was achieved by
taping the lens focus ring in a fixed position and focussing by
moving the entire camera position up and down.  The tape used was
Scotch #850, well known to slide librarians as silver binding
tape.  Small vertical camera movements were achieved by using a
rack-and-pinion device; larger movements were executed with the
copy stand controls.  A plastic bubble level was used on the
camera back and on the book page.  Small increments in angularity
to achieve a parallel subject could be achieved with small shims
placed under the object table.
 
Originally I used a 90 degree viewer attached to the camera's
pentaprism, but eventually gave it up in favor of a waist-level
finder.  Light readings were taken from a grey-card and evenness
of illumination had to be checked too.  Using a grey card is
essential when photographing books and graphic materials.
 
This procedure proved effective in my case because each book
normally contained several hundred woodcuts of the same dimen-
sion.  As each page was turned up to reveal the next page, the
lens to subject distance would change slightly, so refocusing
 with the focusing rack was a necessity.  Typically books were not
photographed in page order; first all pages facing in the same
direction as the title-page were shot (the odd numbered pages),
then all the even pages, starting again from the front.  If
details were required, this procedure would be repeated.
Recordkeeping had to be precise, of course.  This procedure
reduced the degree of handling needed, and sped up the process
considerably.
 
The camera used was a Nikon F2 with a 55mm Nikkor Macro lens.
When the format of a book was too large for this setup, the Nik-
kor 35mm architectural lens was substituted.  This lens intro-
duced some barrel distortion, but permitted, with its architec-
tural controls, the lens to be swung out from the negative center
so that quite large books could be photographed with ease.
 
I carried this setup throughout Europe and the United States
photographing in Rare Book libraries from Geneva to New York and
California.  Naturally, not all repositories would allow me to
photograph, but those librarians who did permit it were always
confident that my tools would not damage their rare items.  There
was never any damage, even when 19th century bindings made books
so tight they could hardly be opened.
 
As a result I now have a collection of nearly 7,000 negatives
covering much of the printing history of Lyon during the mid six-
teenth century.  Publishers who have seen prints and who have
inspected the negatives believe the quality to be good enough to
bring to print.
 
Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
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