photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

, a copy stand is a device used to copy images and/or text with a

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

. The stand consists of a board onto which the media is placed and an apparatus allowing the camera to be mounted parallel to it, usually with an adjustable height. Light is provided by bright lamps mounted on either side of the media at 45° angles. This provides uniform lighting and reduces

specular reflection Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface. The law of reflection states that a reflected ray of light emerges from the reflecting surface at the same angle to the surf ...

, keeping glare low. In film cameras, copy stands are traditionally used with

slide film In photography, reversal film or slide film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Instead of negatives and prints, reversal film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives (abbreviat ...

. The fine resolution of slide film allows the images to be reproduced with high fidelity when they are projected.

Reprography

Copy stands can be used for

reprography Reprography (a portmanteau of ''reproduction'' and ''photography'') is the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as photography or xerography. Reprography is commonly used in catalogs and archives, as well as in t ...

(that is, to copy documents). To do so, the camera is mounted, usually with a standard 1/4" tripod-mount screw, onto the stand, pointing the lens down at the base, where the document to be copied would be placed.

Forensics

Copy stands can be used in forensics to photograph evidence, in much the same way documents are reproduced. Evidence is brought to the lab, placed on the copy stand and recorded. Some copy stands designed for forensic use have

ultraviolet light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

sources on them, to illuminate latent fingerprints.

Animation

Copy stands are sometimes recommended as a low-cost alternative to a full-featured animation stand for traditional

cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

, especially when using small

film formats A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film for still images or film stock for filmmaking. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary ...

such as Super 8.

References

*{{cite book, author=Paul Davies, title=The Photographer's Practical Handbook, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WBtNlVLiMcYC&pg=PA50, date=15 May 2005, publisher=David & Charles, isbn=0-7153-1798-9, pages=50– Photography equipment