A bride gave me 3 2 by 3 foot gaterboards covered with pictures as source material for her photomontage. I am not allowed to remove them or damage the board in any manner.

My Bencher copystand, while large, will not get me to the center of the gaterboard with any degree of comfort.

Placing the boards on an easel and shooting each picture forces a lot of repositioning of the camera and it is difficult to align the camera square to the picture.

Solution?

I used my camera crane to hold the camera over the boards as they lay on the floor. Lighting is easy, I can 'dolly' in with the crane and roam around the photos with ease by moving the board. I control the camera with a remote and manually move the camera as it is balanced on the crane. I watch the image on an attached monitor.

Mike,
What will brides ask for next? <g>

Have you considered using a digital still camera to snap shots from the board and then bring theem into your video timeline? It might be easier than repositioning copy stands and will produce better shots than your video camera.

Just a thought.

Yes, but I still have to get the camera aligned to the picture and the crane does this