How to photograph a register
Good photographs are most of the battle — a clear, flat, well-lit page reads beautifully; a warped or glary one does not. A few minutes of care here saves an hour of correcting later.
If you have a flatbed scanner
Use it first, if the book's binding opens flat (90 degrees or more) without strain. Scan at 300 DPI minimum — 600 DPI for small or faded script — and always in color. Never use black-and-white mode: faded brown ink disappears in it.
Using a phone camera
A modern phone (12 megapixels or better) works very well:
- Hold the phone directly above the page, parallel to it. A tilted shot warps the lines and hurts recognition.
- Use bright, even, diffuse light — near a window in daylight, or two lamps at 45 degrees from the sides.
- Turn the flash off. It glares on glossy or plastic-covered pages.
- Flatten the page. Hold the gutter gently with fingertips at the margins, or lay a clean sheet of glass over the page. Text curving into the binding is the #1 cause of misreads. Never force a fragile spine.
- One page per photo. Fill the frame and keep all four page edges just visible.
- Shoot the pages in order, and zoom in on each photo before moving on — retake anything blurry now, not later.
A quick checklist before you upload
- 1. Color, not black-and-white.
- 2. Camera flat above the page, no tilt.
- 3. Even light, no flash, no glare.
- 4. Page flattened — nothing curving into the binding.
- 5. One page per photo, in order, edges visible.
Handling old books
Handle fragile registers with clean, dry hands and support the cover as you go. Photograph oversized pages in two overlapping halves. JPEG or PNG files up to 5 MB each are fine — Vianney straightens, compresses, and stores them automatically.
Questions? [support@vianney.church](mailto:support@vianney.church)