Best way to image an 80 year old newspaper?

[MDJ]

I hope someone might be able to help me with this here.
While doing new construction on our church a time capsule of sorts was discovered filled with letters, photos, and newspaper clippings. The photos I can restore no problem but the newspaper is something I have never done before.
It is so old that it is falling apart and warped. I am not sure it can even be moved let alone scanned traditionally.
I do have a Canon S80 which is an 8MP camera that can take pictures in RAW format.
Could I use this to capture the image instead? I believe that when doing this you are supposed to have the camera a certain distance from the object with lights hitting it from a certain angle but I have not been able to find any specific info on this.
Please let me know if this question was already answered or if there is a better place to ask.
Thanks.

[Jerryb]

hi,
i am not that great with camera however.... this article i sometime refer to is pretty good... on photographing documents...
http://www.subchaser.org/photographing-documents

plus there some photography experts on here and I am sure they'll be jumping in soon....

Originally Posted by MDJ

I hope someone might be able to help me with this here.
While doing new construction on our church a time capsule of sorts was discovered filled with letters, photos, and newspaper clippings. The photos I can restore no problem but the newspaper is something I have never done before.
It is so old that it is falling apart and warped. I am not sure it can even be moved let alone scanned traditionally.
I do have a Canon S80 which is an 8MP camera that can take pictures in RAW format.
Could I use this to capture the image instead? I believe that when doing this you are supposed to have the camera a certain distance from the object with lights hitting it from a certain angle but I have not been able to find any specific info on this.
Please let me know if this question was already answered or if there is a better place to ask.
Thanks.

[Mike]

Some tips:

Your camera sounds big enough and RAW is best for this. Shoot in color, try to make the distance from the subject to the camera long enough so that your lens is in the "normal" to "telephoto" range, try to stay away from getting so close you are in the wide angle range.

To hold the camera in the same position each time, you need to mount it on something. If you have a tripod and the distance works out, just lay the tripod on a table, stack some heavy books or something on the other end and have the camera sticking out over the edge of the table looking down at the floor. Place the subject below the camera and shoot away.

Lighting should be two lights, set at 45 degree angles to the subject, so that the entire surface is evenly lighted. Try to find two identical fixtures, just about anything will work as long as you can adjust their position fairly easily. We found a local "farm store" and got two chicken brooding lights. They came with clamps and where ease to clamp to some chairs.

For bulbs we used 2 of the daylight balanced CFL, they are bright and they do not heat up.

Hope this helps.

[jr72]

May I suggest you to take the newspapers to a document restoration expert? If it's already falling apart and warped, there's little chance you'll be able to take a good picture without a lot of manipulation, and it would be a shame for such old newspapers to disappear right in front of your eyes...
Just my 2 cents...