Aaron
Probably 2 lights pointed at the cover at a 45 degrees angle. Remember
that you can see the reflections from the viewer so you should be able to
move it around and or the light to see there are no glares before taking
the picture.
Barney
Draw a line from light source to laserdisc jacket. Invert that line to know
where the glare is going to and perhaps add +/- 15 degrees to that arc.
Don't stand where the glare is going and you won't photograph any.
Consider using a difuse light source. Block the light from directly lighting
the laserdisc jacket and only use reflected light from elsewhere in the room.
A flatbed scanner can do a pretty good job, I know you can't scan a whole
cover on an A4 scanner but there's freeware software that can stitch two
scans together so well you can't see the join down the middle:
http://62.188.32.182:1453/~rid/LD-LicenseToDrive.jpg
I know bits of the top & bottom are missing as that was a quick example
test, but if you scan the cover in four quarters - join the top two &
bottom two then join those two images together you should end up with a
high quality perfect scan. The software I used to join those together is
the freeware V1.6 of the Panorama Factory:
http://www.panoramafactory.com/download.html
--
Rid
S'funny, I asked the same question a month or so ago and Matthew responded
with "document stand". The funny thing is I forgot I bought one some 20 or
so years ago; found it in a closet and now it's back in service. You can
see a pic of mine here:
<http://thadlabs.com/PIX/doc_stand.jpg>
One needs to experiment with lighting for LD jackets; so far I've had the
best results outside (in the shade) on a sunny day, but the same effect
can probably be achieved using diffused lighting indoors. You definitely
don't want to use a flash -- causes "hot spots" and/or glare.
Aaron,
I'd recommend one of those small desk top tripods for cameras. They
(some) come with weighted feet and bendy legs so your pictures can come
out smear free.
You can play around with a long exposure under low(er) light which might
help with the problems you are having. Still life is a very forgiving
subject.
Also, many smaller sources of indirect (bounced off something) will
lessen glare than a single, direct source.
TBerk
> Also, many smaller sources of indirect (bounced off something) will
> lessen glare than a single, direct source.
I found if it's too late to use daylight for photographing things (eBay
mostly for me) then a 500watt halogen light shining at the ceiling works
well, or use the flash and hold a small mirror or something white in
front of the flash at 45degrees so the light then bounces off the
ceiling.
The result is that shadows are diffused (no sharp edges) and the object
you're photographing gets a more even light on it from several angles.
--
Rid
Aaron
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3378953986
Or
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4185236388