PHOTOGRAPHING THE TV SCREEN
By G8MNY

CAMERA TYPES
The best for this job must be a 35mm Manual (or semi manual), Through The Lens
metering, Single Lens Reflex with a lens or vertical focal plane shutter action. With the SLR you can get in close to check the actual focus and avoid missing the shot due to parallax from a separate viewfinder. Autofocus cameras can get it wrong if they accidentally focus on the TV tube's glass surface and not the phosphor.

Don't use flash mode, although obvious many small modern cameras insist on a flash rather than give a long exposure time.

LINING UP THE SHOT
Try to get close to the tube and aim to nearly fill the viewfinder, a wide angle or zoom lens can help with this, but do not get close enough to cause optical pin-cushion distortion from the bulbous tube. Keep the camera axis in line with the centre of the TV for best geometry and even focus.

If possible take the picture in a shady room so that black is black and watch out for reflections (eg yourself) etc. that never seem to be there when you take the picture!
Setup the TV to give a good sharp well colour balanced picture with the brilliance set at that the blacks are just visible.

If the shot is off a video recording then with a few practice plays you can select the best action, subject, steady shots, to snap. A VCR freeze frame will never look as good as a longer exposure snap with no motion!

THE SHUTTER
For shots of moving video a 1/25 sec may be best option if your camera can do this speed but there is a problems. With a lens or vertical focal plane shutter horizontal brilliance bars may be visible as the shutter snaps approximately 2 TV fields, if the shutter timing happens to open and shuts during TV flyback a perfect picture will be the result. So take several snaps of moving action and some will be OK. With a sideways focal plane shutter there will always be diagonal brilliance bars, so don't use fast shutter speeds or use the camera in portrait mode. If you need a fast action without bars try a VCR still frame
with a long camera exposure time.

When there is no video motion then slower shutter speeds give much better result, not only does the depth of focus greatly improve, but there are so many frames averaged that any shutter timing brilliance bars are too faint to notice.

With noisy but well locked pictures there is a distinct advantage in using long exposure times, as much of the noise will be removed. Shutter speeds of 1/12, 1/8, 1/4 of a second or longer work well but may require a tripod.

GADGETS
Using a tripod can help as you have more time to view and set up the shot, you can use very slow shutter speed without problems. Cable release can reduce the chance of disturbing the cameras aim even when on a tripod, this is especially true if using a telephoto lens or slow shutter speeds.

EXPOSURE & FILM
Use a normal daylight film, as TV sets are set up to give of lots of blue light that is seen by film as a daylight balance, even though you eyes do not. I recommend 200 ASA as being the most versatile.

If the exposure meter is not TTL or you cannot easily fill the viewfinder with the whole picture then take the meter/camera to the screen to take the light reading.

With low light subjects watch out for viewfinder backlight error readings that are possible with some TTL systems! Also with slow exposures the metering may give out or give silly readings. So take a reading at a more normal shutter speed then do a time/iris stop F calculation. eg. Double the exposure time means reduce the apeture by 1 F stop position.

All these are approximately the same exposure:-

PRINTS
If the pictures are taken in total darkness the developer may not align the TV image in the centre of the print. If this often happens use some lighting behind the TV so that the camera frame stands out, or give printing instructions when you take the film in to be developed.

For use in front of a TV camera prints should be gloss finish, as any surface glare cam be eliminated by positioning the lighting etc. Prints with a matt finish give less highlight glare but always give a speckly grey instead deep blacks when seen by a camera.

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