This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: AnneHalford Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.rogers/10892.5.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: The biggest advantage to having the digital images, is to reduce wear on the ledger, because you can study the pages without handling the book itself. If opening the book flat to scan it might damage it's fragile condition or spine, I recommend high resolution photographs. (Also great for large books that would require more than one scan to copy a page.) Lay book on a low surface, or floor, where you can get the camera directly perpendicular to the page. Brace the camera against a solid object to prevent blurry images (lots of indirect lighting helps if you can't use a flash. I don't have a tripod). If pages are thin, put a sheet of white paper behind the page to increase contrast and block out faint images of following page. Getting too close may result in "fisheye" distortion, so back off and crop the excess later. If the scans of the old pages are too dark, or the writing is faint, make a copy of the page to experiment on. Use your computer's image editing program to increase contrast and/or brightness, or reduce midrange values or color saturation. If you post the images HERE more people will see them. You may have to reduce the jpeg file to document size to speed up loading time, but attaching an image to your posts is simple. Anne Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.