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Archival lighting for book scanning suggestions?

Posted: 13 Aug 2014, 18:04
by machelensin
Does anyone have suggestions for archival safe lighting for book scanning? I've been looking up various stuff that I should be looking for, but it is hard to translate that to physical products I need to purchase.

I'm working on a high resolution camera (Nikon D810).

What should I be looking for in terms of:
-Bulb shape (T8 seems a bit excessive in terms of space!)
-Wattage
-Temperature
-CRI

Any recommendations or suggestions?

Re: Archival lighting for book scanning suggestions?

Posted: 01 Jul 2015, 22:40
by javier
Do you mean safe for the object? From the conservation perspective there are three bands from the electromagnetic spectrum to consider in this context: infrared (heat) visible light (colors we see) and UV.

led lighting usualy does not emit UV or infrared so your clear on that. (check the specs of light source)
tungsten, halogen, dicroic, also does not emit UV but is high in infrared,

Regarding the amount of lux, either source you use is probably in the range of 300 to 1.500 lux but exposure time is minimal, less than one minute?. so the risk of damaging the source object due to lighting is über unlikely. just don't leave the book open under the ligt if you are not scannig. and handle the book with care :mrgreen:

If you want more information consult this page on the subject written by Stephan Michalski, conservation scientist. He even managed to program a light damage calculator, I punched in the numbers:
5.000 lux for 12 minutes one year and the effects measured in estimated color change on the most sensible material of the blue wool standard ISO1 is marginal (0.01)

to consider for products purchase:
high CRI is important to obtain good results.
Color Temperature is managed by camara setting or postprocesing