Taking photos of TV pictures
Sep 4, 2018 08:36:04 #
I have a long history of attending the US Open Tennis. My book cases are filled with annual albums. However this year overall health (I'm 89 years old) and a minor operstion (hernia) coming up this week I've been unale to attend. So I thought I'd keep the annual album tradition going by taling photos of the TV coverage. I've done so but with problems of lighting, lines in the photos, etc. I've tried all the PASM settings but my hit rate is seemingly more accidental than on target. So does anyone have experience with this and can offer some assistance tips?
Sep 4, 2018 08:58:14 #
NCMtnMan
Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC
I'm not sure if this will help, but I'll give my thoughts. Due to the way AC power works, it cycles at 60 hertz, the screen refresh rate is the same at 1/60 of a second. I don't know if this true of the current LED/LCD TVs. But, that's what it was back in the old days before with analog screens. In order to try to get a clean shot, you had to set shutter speed at 1/60 or a multiple of that in order to try to avoid the screen roll as the lines of horizontal refresh cycled. The only other thing I could suggest would be to set your aperture wide open, up your ISO, your shutter speed as high as possible, on a tripod and shoot in burst mode. You will probably delete most of the shots, but hopefully get enough keepers for your collection.
Sep 4, 2018 09:00:47 #
I have often taken photos of my TV screen, not because of what was showing on TV, but because I wanted to work on some "feature" of my camera that I was not yet familiar enough with.
One thing I noticed was, that the farther away from the TV I was sitting with my camera, the better the photos came out. Usually the distance is about 12 feet between camera and tv, but I've also been at as little as 4 - 6 feet and those did not turn out well.
There has been the odd photo that came out with "waves" or "streaks" of light across the image.
Unfortunately, because they were all practice photos, I have not saved a single one of them.
If you like, I could take another photo later this morning, and post it with all the details.
One thing I noticed was, that the farther away from the TV I was sitting with my camera, the better the photos came out. Usually the distance is about 12 feet between camera and tv, but I've also been at as little as 4 - 6 feet and those did not turn out well.
There has been the odd photo that came out with "waves" or "streaks" of light across the image.
Unfortunately, because they were all practice photos, I have not saved a single one of them.
If you like, I could take another photo later this morning, and post it with all the details.
Sep 4, 2018 09:00:51 #
NCMtnMan
Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC
One other thought I just had was if you could DVR the matches and then stop action on playback and take your screen shots then or possibly use the movie option in your camera and extract stills from that.
Sep 4, 2018 09:05:29 #
It is possible. When I first got my D7000 years ago I took a couple of shots of a PGA tournament just for kicks. I was amazed at how well they turned out...almost like I was there. I wish I could tell you what settings I used. I do know that tv replenishes the picture so many times per second, so you would have to shoot faster than that.
Sep 4, 2018 09:06:43 #
Just my thought.....
Set your shutter speed at the same as the refresh rate on your tv....ie, older TVs had a refresh rate of 60 times per second. In this case you would set the shutter to 1/60. Newer TVs can refresh at higher frequencies...so whatever yours is, sry the shutter to match... then balance the triangle with f stop and iso. I would try f stop of 2.8, then adjust iso.
Set your shutter speed at the same as the refresh rate on your tv....ie, older TVs had a refresh rate of 60 times per second. In this case you would set the shutter to 1/60. Newer TVs can refresh at higher frequencies...so whatever yours is, sry the shutter to match... then balance the triangle with f stop and iso. I would try f stop of 2.8, then adjust iso.
jimkh wrote:
I have a long history of attending the US Open Ten... (show quote)
Sep 4, 2018 09:10:00 #
Yes, it can be difficult; here are my thoughts. Use Manual mode, aperture wide open, experiment with relatively slow shutter to blur the scanning lines, Use a tripod, zoom to fill the viewfinder and prefocus on the screen, don't look through the viewfinder but use cable release. Try to anticipate the action and practice beforehand on the commercials.
John
John
Sep 4, 2018 09:18:58 #
NCMtnMan wrote:
One other thought I just had was if you could DVR the matches and then stop action on playback and take your screen shots then or possibly use the movie option in your camera and extract stills from that.
If you record the video can you use some form of software to extract the still frame?
Sep 4, 2018 09:33:40 #
Sep 4, 2018 09:43:38 #
jimkh wrote:
I have a long history of attending the US Open Ten... (show quote)
You have to use a shutter speed slower than the screen's refresh rate, 1/60 or 1/120 sec in most cases, to avoid the lines.
Sep 4, 2018 10:52:21 #
BebuLamar wrote:
If you record the video can you use some form of software to extract the still frame?
That's a good plan. If you still want to shoot off the screen, just set your shutter at 1/60 or 1/125 sec at the appropriate f/ stop. Darkin the room to avoid reflections. Anticipate the action and shoot!
You can't expect a perfect images as if you were there. You will, however, have a nice souvenir of the event.
There will be some morir patterns and lines.
Best wishes for a fast and complete recovery from you surgery. Enjoy the matches.
Sep 4, 2018 11:04:01 #
Add a POSTERIZATION effect and create a decorative piece.
Sep 4, 2018 12:22:32 #
If you have DVR tape the whole show. Then find some good clear frames by pausing the DVR during playback. You should get good shots by photographing the TV when you stop the show on a clear frame. Many of the frames may be blurred as the program is only replaying at 30fps or so, with a likely shutter speed of 1/60 sec. You don't notice the blurs with the eye while the video is running, but pausing the video will identify the good shots you can take pictures of off the screen with the vdeo paused. Here's a picture I took last night of a paused scene from the California fires. It was shot at f5.6, 1/25 sec., iso100 with a 55mm lens on a Nikon J1 (equivalent focal length 148mm) sitting about 8 ft. from the screen. The TV is a Vizio, 36 inch, led backlit lcd HD TV.
Sep 4, 2018 21:39:54 #
Sep 4, 2018 21:45:07 #
Thanks so much to all. I've found the best tip is th 1/60 second shutter which seems to eliminate all those irritsting lines. You can't stop action too well but you can't win them all.
Again thsanks to the Hedgehogs for all the good tips which I will try and use.
Jim
Again thsanks to the Hedgehogs for all the good tips which I will try and use.
Jim
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