Collection photography can be as easy as taking a simple snap, or as complex and technical as any other type of photography. The good news is that producing high quality photographs of physical items is achievable even to beginner photographers, with a little bit of patience, preparation, and understanding!
Although, today, you can take perfectly usable images even using just a phone, a more advanced set-up (in this case a DSLR – Digital Single Lens Reflex camera – and some other useful technology) will help you create much more representative and faithful images of your collection items that will last for many years to come.
The photo studio kit contains equipment for creating the ideal conditions (lighting, tripods, lenses, etc.) for capturing high quality photographs of items of all shapes and sizes in your collections. In addition, you will find a range of guides and additional resources to cover different organizational needs.
Audience
This kit is designed for library or other cultural heritage workers to use for photographing their collections and/or space.
Kit Contents
- Clipboard containing evaluation form, contents, and guidance
- Camera case containing:
- Canon Rebel T6 EOS digital camera
- 128 GB SD card and USB adapter
- Zoom lens
- Camera neck strap
- Battery
- Battery charging station
- USB cable
- Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
- Laptop loaded with GIMP and Darktable photo software
- Color checker
- Camera remote
- 5 ft x 10 ft white fabric backdrop
- Proline Dolica camera tripod
- Kshioe Photography Softbox Lighting Kit:
- (2) 50×70 single light head soft box
- (2) white cloths to cover soft box
- (2) 2m light stand
- (2) 135W(5500k) bulbs
- Carry bag
- Emart Backdrop Stand 10x7ft in carrying bag
- (2) crossbars
- (8) backdrop clamps
- (2) sandbags
- T-Shape backdrop support stand
- (4) clamps
- Blue plastic poster tube containing roll of white backdrop paper
- Smartphone stabilizer
- 360 degree camera
- Manuals:
- ALC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation – 3rd Ed.
- Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
Resources
- Digital Photography For Object Documentation
https://www.archives.gov/files/preservation/heritage-science/digital-photography-for-object-documentation.pdf - Online Museum Training – Photographing Collection Items
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgG7HEpvyo - Basics of Collection Photography
https://connectingtocollections.org/basics-of-collection-photography/ - Object Photography for Museums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3GaMFjzoEc - How to Photograph Historical Objects for Maine Memory Network
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUelmQSzjd0 - Basic Digital Photography for Museum Objects (on a budget!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8K8dp3-qyk - Top 10 tips for collections photography
https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/top-10-tips-collections-photography/ - Guidelines For The Creation Of Digital Collections – Digitization Best Practices for Three-Dimensional Objects
https://www.carli.illinois.edu/sites/files/digital_collections/documentation/guidelines_for_3D.pdf - How Do Museums Photograph Objects?
https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/how-do-museums-photograph-objects/ - Taking Collection Digitisation To The Next Level
https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/photogrammetry-taking-collection-digitisation-to-the-next-level/ - GIMP (photo editing software on laptop) tutorials https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
- Darktable (raw image post-production software on laptop) Guides & Tutorials https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.0/en/guides-tutorials/
