CompuServe Messages

Timothy Bulson Just thought I'd come in on this one for you. In my college lab, photographing the screen is often the only economical way to get an image for the student budget. While it does not give the best quality, this kind of image does work well enough to get the point across and works well as a "portfolio" review catalog. Some things to keep in mind. 1. Set the shutter at under 1/10th second (this assures no refresh band shows) 2. Use the lowest speed film you can find (slide film, professional quality Ektachrome, Fugichome, or the like) 3. Make a shield to block side light or turn all the lights off in the room 4. Expose for the highlights a. meter a white screen (this give best exposure for white, prserves highlight detail) b. give two stops more exposure (if you expose based upon the white screen settings, all white things will appear gray or dull, this is because all light meters give an average of the light enetering the metered area and indicate the best average exposure). for example: if the meter says f16 @ 1/4th second, use f8 @ 1/4th c. You may want to set up a test screen with a portrait, color bars, gray scale, etc… and bracket the exposures by 1/2 stops 3 stops +/- best guess. d. Use a longer focal length lens, 50mm – 80mm (this gives less edge distortion). e. Use an 85b filter over the lens. (a computer monitor gives a bluish light from the phosphor coating inside the picture tube which our eyes correct for, but the film will show) the 85b orange filter is the complementary color to the blue shift and absorbs that blue color Good luck Greg