How to digitize a daguerreotype

If you have struggled to make a digital copy of a daguerreotype, Brown University Library photographer Lindsay Elgin has tips that may improve your success. It is the reflective nature of a daguerreotype that makes it especially difficult to make a digital copy.

As Brown University celebrates its 250th anniversary, Digital Production Services at the University Library has been asked to digitize many historical university materials. Some of the earliest photographs in the university’s extensive collection are daguerreotypes made of graduating classes, and Ms. Elgin was asked to digitize images of the classes of 1847 and 1852.

In an online article, Digitizing the “Mirror With a Memory,” Ms. Elgin writes: “Because lighter objects are always more visible in this type of reflective image, photographing a daguerreotype of any size requires surrounding the object with black foam, paper, or cloth that will help offset its reflective properties.”

To avoid seeing the camera’s reflection in the lens, Ms. Elgin suggests we “take a large sheet of black foam core, cut a small hole just for the lens of the camera, and cover the entire camera rig with the foam core.”

To read more about the steps required to digitize a daguerreotype, read Digitizing the “Mirror With a Memory:” How to deal with a daguerreotype’s reflective surface to make a digital archive of record.