I want to photograph an old document to see damaged letters. Will infrared work, and how can I do it?

Answer 1

You will probably have to try infrared, UV and perhaps backlighting and shadow lighting. IR is the easiest as it just requires special film which you can buy from a professional supplier. The others will probably require special equipment. You need to explore document photography in a serious way.

Answer 2

I believe you want "to see damaged letters"

Infrared and extreme enlargement will not get you there.

But working under the sun's ray and constantly tilting the page at different angles will help. (Remember the sun have all the rays you can dream of)

You know the game "Jeopardy"? Well you should write down all letters that you can recognize from your text. Leaving a blank space for all the letter you are looking for.

After a while you will be able to identified names, articles, verbs, adjectives and every thing will fall into place. It is fairly easy

Answer 3

UV is the medium you need for this job. Setting up a shot in UV shouldn't cost too much but even if it did, it sounds like what you're trying to do is worth the trouble. Infrared won't really help you in this situation.

Answer 4

Why won't just plain copy stand macro work? Seems too simple to me!