4.04
Part 04 · The craft · Books and cards
Photographing cookbook pages
Flatten the book, shoot straight down, one page at a time.
- 1Open the book flatWeight the corners with anything heavy. A mug, a jar, another book.
- 2One page per photoNever both pages of a spread. The gutter down the middle curves the text and the camera cannot read into it.
- 3Straight downHold the phone parallel to the page. Tilt bends lines and confuses character recognition.
- 4Window light, from the sideGlossy cookbook paper is a mirror. This is what keeps the reflection out of the text.
- 5Check the cornersCurl at the outer edge is where words get lost.
4.04.1
Handwritten cards
Old recipe cards are the hardest thing to photograph well: faded ink, yellowed card, and handwriting that was never meant for anyone but its author.
Take it to the brightest window in the house. Put it on a plain, contrasting surface, never a patterned tablecloth. Shoot straight down, filling the frame. Turn the card rather than the camera. Take two: one of the whole card, one close on the hardest section.
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Write down what the card does not sayWhose it was. What temperature "medium" meant. That she always doubled the vanilla. That context is the genuinely irreplaceable part, and it fits in the note field.