How i get a digital photo of a paper documents?

i have a lot of paper documents, i need to transfer it into digital form. i did not have scanner but have a digital camera. how can i used it to get digital photo of those documents, please i need to know, the type of light, how it organized, the distance away from the camera and any dietal that will help.

A normal domestic anglepoise or reading light will do. or indeed the normal room lighting. Probably you will need to set the camera on macro and focus from such a distance as makes one sheet fill the screen. Remember the camera must be horizontal to the paper, otherwise you will have serious problems with some part of the page being in focus and some out. Ideally your camera should be on a tripod. Check the white balance - you should set it for tungsten if you are using room lighting, but take one or two shots to ensure that the paper is showing white (if such is the background colour). Do remember that you will not be able, very easily, to edit what is written on the documents.

Easy - you have two choices. Buy a flat bed scanner or use a digital camera with a macro set up and take a digital picture. the macro set up has an arm coming up at a 90 degree angle from the base to allow you to mount the camera. Then the document is placed flat on the base. Using a zoom lens it is easy to fill the frame with the document.

Norm

Do yourself a favor and get a scanner. Its much easier and will do the job right and they are not expensive at all.

Just go to a Kinko's and rent the use of one of their scanners if you don't want to buy one. Scan the images to a cd and your good to go.