Susanwv I lay them on the floor and then take the pic standing over them. That is possible, because I put the puzzle together on a foam board that makes it possible to transport the puzzle wherever I want. Most all the time I work sitting on my glide rocker and can turn the board while I am sitting there to work from the top or bottom of the puzzle. That is why I stick to puzzles that are no more than 18 x 24 most of the time. I will do larger ones on a table, but still use a board (larger than the one I use at the chair) on the table so the puzzle can be turned round and round as I work it. I do get the pic off center sometimes, that is when DH takes over.

My Puzzle perch. These boards can be found at Michaels Craft stores.

Thank you, Gaz ! We sometimes slide them onto a board after we do them, and put the puzzle glue on to save the ones we want. I've got a couple that I want to get framed! We have one more to work before winter is over.

The trapezoid effect happens when the camera is off center. To get rectangular images (square corners), the camera must be on center and perpendicular to the object. If you are using a normal lens and the camera is close to the puzzle, you may find that the image is not in sharp focus across the width of the object, or from corner to corner. This is a feature of a normal lens. These lenses are designed to bring object equidistant from the lens in focus on a flat plane in the camera, e.g., the plane of focus is not a plane at all, but a spherical zone.

A macro lens is one that brings objects at a flat zone in front of the camera in focus on a plane in the camera. That's the difference between a normal and macro lens. A macro lens excel at copying postage stamps and postcards, or for copying other photos. Generally, for this work, the camera is close to the object so many macro lenses also can focus at short distances.

You can increase the depth of field ( zone of acceptable focus) by using smaller lens openings, but this requires longer exposure times. If you use a tripod to steady the camera, a longer exposure time can be tolerated. (If you are like most of we point-and-shoot crowd, you hand hold the camera.)