I was wondering how many Hedgehog members shoot photos from their TV and their opinions concerning this activity?
Mac
Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.
ballsafire wrote:
I was wondering how many Hedgehog members shoot photos from their TV and their opinions concerning this activity?
I've never done it and can't think of any reason why I would want to.
If you are considering doing something like that, keep in mind that what is shown on television is copyrighted so you may run in to legal problems by doing so.
I've done it a couple of times when watching TV with my camera nearby. Wanted to see how it came out. I was shooting a hi-def LED TV and as I recall the color and sharpness were good but there were fine lines or something of that sort throughout the photo.
Very hard to keep motion blur at bay. The shutter speed has to be 1/30 or slower and the motion makes it blur.
I did a few TV shots for a documentary slide show I was putting together for a customer back in film days -- was a long while back, but pretty sure Bebu is right on 1/30. A quick experiment or you can Google the necessary shutter speed. I'd have tested out of curiosity, but don't do TV anymore. Good luck with it!
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
Not sure, but my guess is that the 1/30 shutter speed is so you can capture both fields of a 1080I interlaced picture (refreshed at 60Hz). You might be able to use a higher shutter speed (1/60) if displaying 1080P or 720P (non interlaced). Also if the TV is a 120Hz or 240Hz refresh, you should be able to shoot faster than 1/30th even if interlaced (1/60 for 120Hz or 1/120 for 240Hz). Depending on what your objective is for the image, you might get better results with a frame grabber and skip the camera.
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
ballsafire wrote:
I was wondering how many Hedgehog members shoot photos from their TV and their opinions concerning this activity?
Shoot at 1/30 sec and you should be fine.
ballsafire wrote:
I was wondering how many Hedgehog members shoot photos from their TV and their opinions concerning this activity?
I've done that quite a few times just to get a shot of something. Not great quality, but definitely acceptable. I used a P&S without flash. I suspect modern LED/LCD TVs don't use the same scanning system as TVs with an electron gun.
Yeah, years ago I photographed the broadcast from the moon, first landing. After VCRs came into existence, I didn't need to photograph the TV anymore.
--Bob
ballsafire wrote:
I was wondering how many Hedgehog members shoot photos from their TV and their opinions concerning this activity?
I do it all of the time. I love the weird look i get sometiems. Super saturated and often very abstract looking. I've never fooled much with shutter speed but you guys are giving me ideas.
I also use the TV to practice my timing. You can easily learn when to anticiapate the shot buying picking from moving scens on the TV.
I have shot the TV screen from across the house with my Tamron 150-600mm lens as a test of its resolving power. I agree with everyone who suggests 1/30 sec. shutter speed. But you can experiment with 1/60 and see if you get a full picture. Have fun!
I took photos of the scenery on Gilligan's Island TV show. Just shot them on auto and they weren't perfect, but really not bad. Was fun experimenting.
One year I couldn't make it to The 24 Hours of Daytona so I took a couple pictures of the TV (more as a joke)
Nikon F3 HP slide film and a Sony TV
Oh, I worked for Jaguar at the time
I have not shot just the TV, but sometimes it shows-up in the background. The problems are interlace showing and flash reflection. The solutions include a 1/30 shutter speed and a wide aperture and/or higher ISO to eliminate the need for flash. Of course creative masking during post-processing can effectively turn-off the background TV.
If you're going to be doing this as a hobby or for any other extended time, you could invest in a set-top DVD recorder, and skip the photography part, and just do it digitally and get far better results.
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