How can I get better results photographing dry erase boards?

Question

As far as photography goes, I'm less than an amateur. I have a camera my friend (the head of the photography dept. at a local college) recommended to me that I really want to learn to use, but haven't had time (Nikon D90 - a gift from a relative). I used to do a little more work years ago with film, but I've forgotten more than I remember.

I'm a writer and when I'm working on a story, I use white dry erase boards of different sizes (from about 9x11 inches up to about 2'x3', but one or two are a little larger than that). This works fantastically well for me when I'm diagramming plots or doing scatter notes, before I sit down and do the writing. With the dry erase boards, it's easy to change things around by just wiping a section out and restarting.

I'd really like to be able to take pictures of these whiteboards and save the image when I'm done (and perhaps, later, print it out).

The problem is, with the larger boards, if I'm back far enough to get a photo that fits all of it into the frame, it's too hard to read what I've written on it. (Also, the surfaces are reflective.) I've been told there is software I can use so I could take a number of photos of sections of one board and have the software put them together in one big image. I don't know how well that works (and I don't know what that process is called), so I'm worried about the cost of the software as well as being able to keep the scale the same from shot to shot.

I don't mind building something to do this if it's not something huge, or if I can set it up quickly once I'm done. I just don't want to have to worry about lots of details when I'm in "work mode."

Is there a fairly simple way I can use my camera to take images of these boards that include the whole board and still let me see enough detail so I can read what I've written on them?

Answer

I think you want simple, so I'd recommend using Program mode, which gives you the greatest control without making you learn about exposure. Program mode (the 'P' on the Auto-P-S-A-M dial) gives you these advantages:

• it sets exposure correctly for the lighting conditions, so you won't get a too-dark or too-light image, and you don't have to think about shutter speeds or aperture values or what they mean.
• it won't try to raise the flash, which would reflect off the whiteboard
• you can set exposure compensation, which helps if the camera isn't guessing the exposure correctly.
• you can set the ISO.
• you can set the white balance.
• if you really want to, you can change the shutter speed / aperture combination that your camera chose. For your particular use case, you want to spin the dial all the way to the right (I think) to get the fastest shutter speed.

So, with all that, I'd follow this checklist:

• set your image quality to the highest possible. Don't use RAW.
• set into Program mode.
• unless you're using a very small whiteboard or can't get closer to it, zoom all the way out (to give the camera the widest range of apertures to choose from).
• set the ISO to 100.
• set exposure compensation to 0.
• set white balance to Auto.
• take a sample picture (aim the camera, fill the viewfinder with the whiteboard, half-press the button so it will auto-focus, then while calmly breathing out, slowly and steadily press the rest of the way down).

Now look at the results. Apply any of the following corrections, as needed, and take another sample picture:

• Zoom in to a sample of the text: if the picture is too blurry, raise the ISO and try to hold the camera steadier.
• If the picture is too dark, increase exposure compensation (+1). If the picture is too light, decrease exposure compensation (-1).
• If the colors don't look right, change the white balance. I know very little about white balance, so you'll have to get someone else to help with this.

When the "sample picture" doesn't have any problems, promote it to "finished picture" and you're done.

Check more discussion of this question.