We are often asked how to photograph a photograph or maybe a map that is in a frame with the photograph being behind glass or in a photograph album so that you don’t get a reflection of the photographer.

Here is an example of how it’s done.

The photograph is my grandfather Alfred de Courcy Boyce. He was awarded an OBE in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year Honours list 1969. The installation ceremony was on Saturday 29^th March 1969 at Government House. The award was presented on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II by her representative Sir Winston Scott GCMG GCVO – the second Governor-General of Barbados who held that position from 18^th May 1967 to 9^th August 1976.

Grandad Boyce’s OBE and the photograph of him receiving his OBE is in a frame in my study. The photograph has a glass covering.

To take a photograph of the photograph – without getting a reflection of the photographer – you simply take a the photograph from the side, which changes the perspective of the photograph.

It’s very important that the four edges of the photograph are clearly visible.

The photograph within its frame is taken from the side – so avoiding the photographers reflection.

Within Photoshop its easy to fix the perspective of the photograph using the Photoshop perspective crop tool.

In the above photograph the four sides of the photograph are clearly visible.

Within Photoshop one selects the outline of the photograph with the perspective crop tool and Photoshop then does the magic of adjusting the x, y and z axes to bring the photograph back to normal.

This is a digital way of having a bellows camera where the image perspective can be manipulated by changing the x, y and z axes of the bellows.

The end result – the photograph of the photograph is perspective fixed using the Photoshop perspective crop tool – and there is no reflection of the photographer – which would have been the case if the photograph was taken in front of the photograph.

Key to doing this is that when taking a photo of the photo – the edges of the original photo are clearly visible. Sometimes to fine tune the image its also good to know the the width and height of the original photo so the aspect ratio can be verified – sometimes Photoshop does not get it right and a bit of manual tweaking is needed!