Imaging prints

I have recently embarked upon the noble task of scanning all my negatives from my pre-digital days. In the process, I have discovered a number of prints to which I do NOT have the negatives. I'm looking for suggestions about how I can image these prints (a mix of glossy and matte) without spending a fortune. The negative scanner already put me back $700(CAD).

Some sort of lightbox? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Flatbed scanner works on prints.

Or shoot the print with your camera, light the print from 45 degree angle to each side of the print.

Wilt wrote in post #19212274
Flatbed scanner works on prints.

Or shoot the print with your camera, light the print from 45 degree angle to each side of the print.

Would glossy prints scan OK with the flatbed, or would there be reflection issues?

One would think with enough light and a polarizer the reflections would be no issue.

I have done some archiving like this before and I just took a photo of the photo using my digital camera and it worked well.

haoyuanren wrote in post #19212943
One would think with enough light and a polarizer the reflections would be no issue.

I'm concerned about the reflection in a glossy print of the actual camera/lens if I'm shooting from above. Just overload the image with light from other angles to keep the reflection less?

Naturalist wrote in post #19213002
I have done some archiving like this before and I just took a photo of the photo using my digital camera and it worked well.

Did you not have to deal with keystoning or the see yourself in the picture reflection from high gloss prints?

Thanks for the input... every bit will help.

If lit correctly there shouldn't be any spill on you which means nothing should reflect. You can go into tilt-shift territory to fix that if the reflection still is a problem but that's honestly in my opinion an overkill.

.

DragonSpeed wrote in post #19213041
.
Did you not have to deal with keystoning ..... ?
.

.
I have photographed several hundred paintings for artists. . I find that using a longer focal length and photographing from a moderate distance ensures that there will be no keystoning.

My 100-400mm v2 is my hands-down choice for doing this kind of work.

I typically shoot from a distance of 12 to 15 feet from the subject. . Most of the subjects I shoot are 16" by 20" or larger (sometimes much larger). . You could get the same results shooting from a closer distance if you are shooting tiny little images like 4" by 6", 8" by 10", etc.

I shoot from a tripod, and make sure that the piece I am photographing is hung so that it is perfectly square to the camera. . By that I mean that I want the surface of the painting to be perfectly parallel to the camera's sensor, and the axis from the center of the painting to the center of the lens to be perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the sensor.


.