These are tools I use to do "copy work" (take a photo) of my kid's works. I want to be able to do this a few times a year and be able to process hundreds of items in an hour or two. The reason for doing this project are to:
- Share works with family and friends
- Backup work in case of disaster
- Preserve work that might be fragile
- Reduce storage by recycling some work
Total cost in 2025 dollars $150 assuming you have a pocket terminal (e.g. iPhone or Android device):
- $99 - lights
- $22 - phone overhead mount
- $60 - any ol' tripod that will mount the overhead mount from the center post
First, attach a pocket terminal (e.g. iPhone or Android device) to a tripod via an overhead mount (e.g. Neweer DS009 Camera Mount).
Light the area with two Nanlite Compac 24B placed on the ground and lighting at 45° to the work. Use white paperboard as a background.
Trigger the pocket terminal camera with a remote device (e.g. Apple Watch or Bluetooth device).
Next, AirDrop the photos to me macOS computer.
Now, select the AirDrop'd photos via the "quick action" of "Remove Background".
Now setup this repo:
git checkout https://github.com/philips/kid-copy-work
cd kids-copy-work
python3 -m venv .venv --prompt kids-copy-work
source .venv/bin/activate
Move the photos with the backgrounds removed to the in directory in this git repo. Then run python crop.py which will crop the photos down to the bounding box of the work and add a white background. The photos will be in the out directory.
At the end you should have a nice clean photo of the work