Like a lot of musicians I have pages of sheet music. What I would like to do is copy them so I can load them into my computer. I thought of scanning but that process is too slow when one considers you have the time spent arranging the sheet on the glass or reducing the scan size so the finished product fits an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper and then waiting for the mechanical process of the scanner. I thought it might be easier to photograph them. What I would like to do is build some kind of rack such that the area where the document would lie, would have some kind of frame that defines the area to be photographed, and then have the sides of the rack at some defined focal length so that the camera would sit in a frame above the document. I envision just sliding the document into the document holder and snapping a picture. My concerns are that I want the document picture to be taken as a full size 8 1/2" by 11". Do I just adjust the "legs" of the rack so the viewfiner is filled, or is there some other magic math I need? Any comments will be appreciated. DennisD
Dennis,
If the ratio of the dimensions of your camera lens is not close to the ratio of 8.5:11, you will have empty space somewhere in the image.
Maybe you should experiment a little first, if you haven't done so already, and see what works best.
Regards,
Noel
After all that... wouldn't it be much simpler to just scan it?
I had considered that when I was playing in the church orchestra especially for the Christmas musical/stage show/production extravaganza, that we did every year.
We literally had a 3 ring binder and orchestra music being what it is with the DC al coda's and the other various road signs in the music. There was a need to place tabs on the sheet music pages so that I could flip back a few pages to grab the repeat, then a few bars later, jump ahead to the ending.... that, was a real pain. Some of the tunes were easy enough to learn and commit to memory but others were not so easily committed to rote memory. Especially the ones with tons of chords and changes and modulations.....etc...
I started to do a cheat sheet of just the chords but due to the length of the entire production, that idea was quickly abandoned. The bass player and myself tried it in the rehearsal and found it to be less than desirable. The problem was, when the director stopped and then restarted... he would call out starting at measure 58.... and we were like "huh?"..... We knew that the production would not stop and start in the middle but we had to get through all the rehearsals too. For that year, we simply ended up using the 3 ring binders and I copied the needed pages and bars of the repeats and put together my own custom binder..... with the music in sequence and "peeks ahead" at the surprises coming in the first bars of the next page that I needed to be aware of.
For the following year, and for other similar church musical events, I thought it would be easier to simply scan the pages and use a laptop. This idea occurred to me as we were in the middle of the actual public performances. With a quick tap of a key we could page to the next page, and repeats could be inserted as the next page rather than going back and forth.... just keep it rolling forward.
I never got to try it out since the MM director and myself had a pretty significant "disagreement" during the "Spring Musical Extravaganza" and a parting of ways. Basically, I quit. Long story that I'm sure you don't want to know.
So I never got to the point of actually scanning it all in and building a document to use in those events. I do think it would have worked well. Some time later I saw that many other musicians are using such things...... technology is good. Use it.
iPhone users: CamScanner Free. Works a treat. There might be an android version also. I've been using CamScanner Free for all of my document scanning needs for about 2 years. Have used it on music as well. Has intelligent keystone correction and save to .pdf, etc. Yes, I've used it on sheet music also.
-Scott
Hi Dennis,
Another approach would be to set your music on a music stand, set your camera on a tripod then zoom in on your page. This of course assumes that your camera can zoom, if not then set the camera at the proper distance from the music so the camera only sees the music.
Shoot.
Then batch resize with this free picture batch resizer:
http://www.picresize.com/batch.phpI can not vouch for the resizer but it should work according to the web site.
I hope this helps.
.
I used to do this for a living.
Professional photographers do something like what you describe using a setup like this:
http://www.amazon.com/ProMaster-2174-Promaster-Copy-Stand/dp/B001VDNP3OIt is pretty easy to build something like this at home. A little experimentation will show you what the challenges are. Notice that the device does not have a fixed frame. Every paper printout has its own details of margins, sizes etc. Every shot has to be adjusted to fit the frame of your camera. The lighting has to be controlled so that you get the same shade of white from various qualities of papers. It can be quite demanding.
After you have fooled around with this for a while, you may conclude that scanning is actually pretty quick.
Be advised that sheet music copyrights also apply to digital or any other copy means as well.
While most think that such is okay because it is for their own private use, which is true as long as use remains private, it actually is a violation to take the copy out to certain venues, readily seen, such as nightclubs, bars, stages and even churches.
So take care. Don't include the copyright statements that may be along the bottom of the sheets...
--Mac
Thanks for taking the time to review my post. Can’t believe a week has gone by. All the replies were useful to me in that they either gave me another direction and/or confirmed my thought process was relatively valid. Noel thanks for info that it is the ratio dimensions of the camera lens to the document which results in a better finished photo GH, the music I am scanning is mostly stuff out of books like “Top Hits of The Sixties” (ad nauseum). All I want the song for is to maybe review the melody or lyrics. I won’t be digitizing orchestra or big band charts because in my experience we edit them for shows. Also all I have is the guitar or banjo part not the complete score so it is of limited use. RS thanks for the lead on CamScanner, I youtubed it and looks to be ideal. I will be giving it a try. Mario and flatfoot, your examples are what I want to make out of “wood” so that I would have a fixed focal length, lighting and a defined photo area.
Mac thanks for the reminder on copyright. Normally this information is intended for “work” in the home. If I take it outside, I usually just take the part of the arrangement I need the reminder on. Currently I have loaded about 250 songs into a $59 tablet to see if I could forgo my binders. So far other than the screen being too small, the experiment has worked such that I now feel comfortable about buying a Surface Pro 2 or equivalent and loading most music data into that. Hence the reason for a faster easier way to get my sheet music and lyrics digitized.Thanks again, DennisD
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>>>... I want to make out of “wood” so that I would have a fixed focal length, lighting and a defined photo area...>>>>
You can certainly make a perfectly effetive copystand out of wood, but my point was just the opposite. A little experimentation will reveal that you WILL NOT arrive at a working standard of fixed focal length, framing and lighting requirements. Try it and you will see that every shooting situation is different. A lot different.
Old Photograohic Darkroom Enlargers are now out of vogue due to digital photography.
An Enlarger can easily be turned into a photographic copy stand for a modern digital camera by simply removing the actual Enlarger bulb housing, film holder and bellows/lens assembly and mounting a 1/4-20 camera mount plate as found on tripods to the Enlarger mount.
Adjustable focal length copy stand in one shot.
Old Enlargers can be found sometimes at Thrift Shops, Garage Sales, ebay, etc. and the good news here is that you only want the stand itself, meaning that you can find a good bargain in one where the enlarger actual parts can be missing, damaged, etc. and use that to barter down the price, you only want the working base, pole and scissors.
--Mac
The app I mentioned above is in my hand right now and weighs nothing. It simply works. It's best use for me is documenting white board brainstorm sessions. Rendered electronic whiteboards nearly useless.