A copystand is provided in the corridor of Rm. 286 which you can use for making copy negatives, prints and slides of your photographs or any two-dimensional artwork. You provide your own camera, or you can check out a camera from the photo cage which is to be used only during cage hours and for use on this copystand. What follows are some general guidelines for making high-quality reproductions of your work:

Use at least two, 3200K photoflood bulbs placed at 45 degree angles to the work. If you are using the copystand in the lab, you’ll need four, 250watt 3200K bulbs and the lamps should be adjusted so that they cast an even field of illumination across the copyboard. Bulbs can usually be found in these lamps, but these may have been burned beyond their useful life. For best results, bring your own fresh bulbs and remove them after use. Bulbs will produce consistent color for up to about 15 hours. After that, they are best used only for black and white film.

For color slides, use Ektachrome 64T or 160T tungsten film.

For color negatives, use Vericolor Type L tungsten negative film, or use a daylight color film with a blue 80B conversion filter.

After adjusting the lights, take a gray-card reading. If you use the copystand in the lab, the baseboard is a gray card, so take your meter reading off of that, not the artwork itself. This exposure is then valid for any artwork photographed under that lighting, so there is no need to readjust for each item photographed. If you readjust the lamps, though, be sure to take another gray-card reading. If you are doing your copywork elsewhere, use a gray card for your reading (obtainable at any photo supply store). Be sure to fill your camera’s viewfinder with the gray card and don’t cast your own shadow on it when taking the reading.

To keep your rectangular works from becoming trapezoids in the slides, make sure that the camera is parallel to the baseboard of the copystand. If photographing elsewhere, use a small level against the back of the camera to match its angle to the angle of the wall upon which the artwork is hanging. Generally, you should crop as closely as possible to the edges of the work, eliminating borders and mats from the image area. Extra space at the sides of the artwork can be masked out on the slides later with silver slide masking tape, but you can also "mask" out this extra space by placing black velour or velvet behind the artwork.

For best results, use a cable release to minimize vibration during exposures, or if this is not available, use the self-timer on the camera to avoid having to touch the camera to set off the shutter.

If you want to be sure of getting the best possible slide of your work, it’s best to bracket exposures around the gray card reading. Example, if the gray card reading is f5.6, shoot a frame at 5.6, another at f4, and another at f8.

Evaluate your slides by projecting them rather than be simply looking at them on a light table or holding them up to the light. Slides that look good on a light table will often look about one f-stop too light when projected.

If you need more than one slide of each artwork, it’s best to shoot your duplicates in-camera at the time of photographing, rather than making duplicates later on. The quality you’ll obtain shooting off of the original work is better than that of slide dupes and it’s also cheaper than having duplicate slides made.

Note: If you are shooting a lot of slides, it may be wise to run a test roll first, keeping notes of exposures and bracketing carefully. Have this test roll processed before completing your shooting. You may find out from the test, for example, that your camera produces the best exposure when closed down one f-stop from the gray card reading or opened up one f-stop. You will learn from this test what deviation, if any, you need to make from the gray-card reading when shooting with that camera and film in the future. (Have your test roll processed at the same lab that you’ll be using for subsequent rolls.)

All of the places to which you’ll be submitting or sending your slides will expect them to be labeled with your name, title of work, media, etc. Some competitions, grant applications, graduate school applications, are quite specific about how the slides should be labeled.

Mask your slides: White areas surrounding the artwork in the slide should be masked out with silver slide-masking tape, available in most photo and art-supply stores. Unmasked slides with expanses of white around the artwork will usually look washed-out when projected.

Some applications and competitions will specifically request only slides. Galleries and museums often welcome prints in addition to slides, since they can be viewed quickly without a projector. You may find that certain works don’t reproduce well as slides, but may reproduce well as a black & white or color print. All of the information about applies to shooting print films, both color and black & white, as well as to slides, except that with print films, exposure is not as critical, since it can be adjusted in the printing of the negative. For prints, use a fine-grain film (ISO no higher than 125) since the negative will be enlarged.

All of the above applies to 3-D work, except that you’ll need to be more creative and flexible in arranging your lighting. Two lamps at 45-degree angles to the work will probably not work for sculpture. Use two or more lamps and experiment with indirect or bounced lighting for one or more of the lamps. Reflections and glare can be used to create a sense of material or surface. If in doubt, shoot the work with more than one lighting arrangement to assure that you’ll get an acceptable result.