How to Photograph Old Recipe Cards With Your Phone
Everything that can happen to a recipe card later starts with one photograph. A phone and a window are all the equipment the job requires. Here is the entire technique.
Everything that can happen to a recipe card later, restoration, archiving, printing it large enough to hang on a wall, starts with one photograph. The good news is that a phone made in the last several years is more camera than the job requires. The card is small, it does not move, and you control the light.
What follows is the entire technique. It takes about two minutes per card and requires nothing but a window.
Step One: Window Light, Nothing Else
Put the card on a flat surface near a window, out of any direct sunbeam. Turn the overhead lights off; they throw a yellow cast and your own shadow across the card. Never use flash. Flash bounces off ink and paper gloss and erases the very strokes you are trying to keep.
Overcast days are not a problem. Soft, even, slightly dim light photographs better than bright light with hard shadows, and restoration handles dimness easily. What it cannot undo is a white flash burn across the middle of the handwriting.
Step Two: Directly Above, Perfectly Flat
Hold the phone parallel to the card, directly over it, so the card sits square in the frame. Shooting at an angle stretches the card into a trapezoid and distorts the handwriting. Squareness matters more than steadiness; a slight blur from your hands is recoverable, a steep angle is work.
If the card curls, hold the corners down with two coins placed away from any writing.
Step Three: Fill the Frame, Then Check
Move close enough that the card takes up most of the photo. Then do the one check most people skip: open the photo and zoom into the smallest handwriting. If it reads sharply, you are done. If it smears, take it again. This ten-second check is the difference between a photograph that prints at 16x20 and one that does not.
Step Four: Both Sides, Every Card
Recipes continue on the back more often than you would guess, and backs and margins are where the human material lives: the corrections, the doubled quantities, the from Helen. Photograph the back even when it looks blank at a glance. The point is to never need the original again, so capture all of it once.
Doing a whole box in one sitting, at a holiday for instance, is covered in photograph the recipe box this Thanksgiving. This same technique, applied card after card, gets through fifty in about twenty minutes.
Got the photograph? Upload it and watch the card restored. Nothing prints until you say so →
At a glance
- What it is
- Your handwritten recipe card, printed large on fine-art paper and framed, exactly as it was written.
- What you send
- One phone photo of the card. The original stays with you.
- Prices
- Prints from $39. Framed from $109.
- Sizes
- 8 × 10 to 16 × 20 inches. Frames in 8 colors.
- Preview
- Free, before you pay.
- Shipping
- Ships in 3 to 5 business days. Free on every US order.
Questions
How do I get the best result from my photo?
Try to capture the card in flat, even lighting. Leave a little room around your card or paper. For the best results, the whole card should be visible, edges and all. Flatten out any curled edges where you can, and place the card against a slightly contrasting background. A clean, well-lit photo gives us the best starting point for your print.
Can I upload more than one card, or both sides of a card?
Unfortunately, we can't currently print the front and back of a recipe onto a single art print. If your recipe is written on both sides, we recommend ordering two prints, one for each side. They often look great hung as a pair.
What if my recipe card is faded, stained, or hard to read?
That's the best material we work with. Stains, fades, and tears tell the story of how often the recipe got made. We prepare your photo for print and keep every stain and crease. If a card is so faded that words are illegible, you'll see it in the preview before you order, so there are no surprises.
Can I see a preview before I buy?
Yes. After you upload your photo, you'll see a full preview of the finished print in your chosen frame and size before adding anything to your cart. You only pay if you love what you see.
