Matt and all,
As two cents from a non-conservator who cares for a collection of works
of art on paper (including their digital imaging), these days
camera-based capture does most often tend to be best--safe, accurate,
fast--with these materials, but each situation can be different.
Your one specific factor of light intensity and duration actually may or
may not be a concern with flatbed scanning of original photographic
prints, depending on the specific scanner and the settings used with it,
as well as the specific photographic media involved--for example,
well-processed gelatin silver prints, versus more fugitive media.
That said...in most museum contexts, other preservation concerns make
digital photographic capture vastly preferable to flatbed scanning for
works on paper that are considered part of the collection as such, as
distinct from photographs considered to be internal documents, etc.
These concerns arise from the need to place original works face-down in
physical contact with the scanner, and one after another. Depending on
the physical attributes of each photo (its surface, condition, etc.),
that contact can raise concerns about causing subtle surface damage, as
well as about any possible transfer of unseen contaminants--e.g., mold
spores--from object to object, if one early in a run has such an issue.
(Also, if any of the photographs are matted, the significant handling
risks of flipping them over and down onto a flatbed while matted, or of
unmatting and rematting each photograph, could both raise more acute
preservation concerns and seriously slow down your capture workflow.)
So, depending on your situation, it may well be much faster and safer to
run rapid, camera-based capture instead, especially by the time you
factor in the need to assess any object-by-object risks of scanning.
But over to the conservators! (Is Dale Kronkright in the house?)
hope this helps,
Rob
--
Rob Lancefield
Manager of Museum Information Services / Registrar of Collections
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
301 High Street, Middletown CT 06459-0487 USA
rlancefield [at] wesleyan [dot] edu | tel. 860.685.2965
On 1/22/15 4:05 PM, Matt Wheeler wrote:
Good afternoon. We have a collection which consists mostly of black and
white photographic prints and are beginning to digitize them using flatbed
scanners. However, I spoke to a conservator who advised that they be
rephotographed with a digital camera instead due to the intense light
exposure on a flatbed. Is this a legitimate concern? Will the scanners
cause degradation of the originals, and would this degradation be
considerable? Thanks in advance.
______________________
Matt Wheeler,
Photography Archives,
Penobscot Marine Museum
Archives (207) 548-2529 ext. 211
5 Church Street, PO Box 498
Searsport, Maine 04974
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