Tuesday, May 24, 2016

CreativeSpaces :: Automating the Copy Frame

Placing my sketch book on the floor & copy stand on tableEarlier in the year I modified a small enlarger stand to become a desktop copy frame. I love it and use it often. However one tiny draw back compared with a conventional desktop scanner is you have to wait, take the card to the computer and load it before you see the scan in detail. Not a big hassle but can mean you need to go back and re-photograph some works if something was not quite right.

eos utility remote control panelI had an A3 sketchbook full of quick life studies and figured it was time to automate things. With the Copy stand on a desk and the sketch book on the floor, it was easy enough to get a good photo. Also I had previously run the canon tethered through lightroom but not everything on the camera can be adjusted so I when back found the original CD that came with the camera and reloaded the EOS Utility program Live View Windowwhich among other feature (such as uploading photos from the camera) allows you to set ALL the controls on the camera. It also can work in a live view mode to check lighting and exposure. Perfect for what I wanted.

So I can put the live view & remote control on the big screen in the studio and took the mouse down to the floor and control everything from there as I turned the pages in the sketchbook, click, turn the page, click … I powered through the 45 pages of sketches in less than 5 minutes (actually faster than I could have scanned smaller pages on my desktop scanner)

an example scan

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