How to Photograph Microfilm

Microfilm has made it possible over the years to compress and preserve a variety of pieces of history that otherwise would be lost. Newspapers, in particular, always have been printed on the cheapest and therefore worst paper available. By photographing the pages, newspapers, which are a daily history of a region, have been preserved. It isn't easy to photograph this microfilm, but it can be done.

Instructions

1

Get a slide copier that accommodates strip film. These usually are bellows attachments for single-lens reflex cameras. Do not try to use a slide copier designed only for mounted slides. It won't work and it might damage the microfilm. Finding a strip-film slide copier usually will mean searching at photo stores or online.

2

Set the digital camera's resolution to the maximum. In most cases for SLRs, this will mean the RAW setting. This will give you more control over the exposure and retain more data for use when you open the image file in Photoshop or another photo-manipulation software package. If you are using a film camera, use high-resolution film. If you can get it, try copy film.

3

Photograph directly from a microfilm reader. This is not as precise as a slide copier, but if you have enough light, it will work. Center the image on the screen, make the focus as sharp as possible and photograph the screen without a flash. Since the screen is backlit, it will provide some some light for the image itself.

4

Use a microfilm scanner. While these are expensive---in the $5,000 range and up---they are the best way to get digital images from microfilm. They work like microfilm viewers except they connect to a computer through a USB port and can scan frames from the microfilm directly to digital files. Some larger libraries and university libraries have microfilm scanners for public use.

5

Use your regular scanner. Most home scanners provide high-resolution scanning, so use the highest you can to get all the details out of the microfilm frame. The hardest part here is keeping the microfilm flat on the scanning surface. If you don't need too many frames photographed, this method will work.

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Microfilm has made it possible over the years to compress and preserve a variety of pieces of history that otherwise would be lost. Newspapers, in particular, always have been printed on the cheapest and therefore worst paper available. By photographing the pages, newspapers, which are a daily history of a region, have been preserved. It isn't easy to photograph this microfilm, but it can be done.

Instructions

1

Get a slide copier that accommodates strip film. These usually are bellows attachments for single-lens reflex cameras.

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. Do not try to use a slide copier designed only for mounted slides. It won't work and it might damage the microfilm. Finding a strip-film slide copier usually will mean searching at photo stores or online.
2

Set the digital camera's resolution to the maximum. In most cases for SLRs, this will mean the RAW setting. This will give you more control over the exposure and retain more data for use when you open the image file in Photoshop or another photo-manipulation software package. If you are using a film camera, use high-resolution film. If you can get it, try copy film.

3

Photograph directly from a microfilm reader. This is not as precise as a slide copier, but if you have enough light, it will work. Center the image on the screen, make the focus as sharp as possible and photograph the screen without a flash. Since the screen is backlit, it will provide some some light for the image itself.

4

Use a microfilm scanner. While these are expensive---in the $5,000 range and up---they are the best way to get digital images from microfilm. They work like microfilm viewers except they connect to a computer through a USB port and can scan frames from the microfilm directly to digital files. Some larger libraries and university libraries have microfilm scanners for public use.

5

Use your regular scanner. Most home scanners provide high-resolution scanning, so use the highest you can to get all the details out of the microfilm frame. The hardest part here is keeping the microfilm flat on the scanning surface. If you don't need too many frames photographed, this method will work.

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