Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!pur-phy!murphy
From: murphy@pur-phy (William J. Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Photographing PC Screens
Keywords: VGA 35mm Poloroid Photo hood
Message-ID: <2023@pur-phy>
Date: 2 Mar 89 13:48:57 GMT
References: <3779@peora.ccur.com> <1891@holos0.UUCP>
Reply-To: murphy@newton.physics.purdue.edu.UUCP (William J. Murphy)
Distribution: na
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., W. Lafayette, IN
Lines: 35

In article <1891@holos0.UUCP> lbr@holos0.UUCP (Len Reed) writes:
>In article <3779@peora.ccur.com> joel@peora.UUCP writes:
>>I just got a VGA compatible board for my PC and I was looking for
>>some advice on how to photograph the screen either with a 35mm
>>or a Poloroid camera. My previous experiences were not that
>>successful....
>
>If you shoot a picture of a TV screen, you have to use a slow shutter
>speed, 1/60 or less.  1/30 or 1/15 is a good choice.  Otherwise you
>get caught in the middle of a scan.  I suspect that much the same is
>true of a VGA screen.  Set the camera on a tripod.
>
>Oh, you're not using a flash, are you? :-)
>-- 
>    -    Len Reed

If you are using a monitor that is not a flat screen monitor, you will
find that there is distortion of your photograph due to the curvature
of the screen.  In an Amazing Computing magazine (Nov. 87 I think),
there was an article discussing photographing your monitor.  The author
suggests that you use a telephoto to reduce the distortion due to curvature.
Also suggested is to turn down the brightness and contrast of your monitor
to make the colors a bit more true to life.  Elsewise you end up with
a photo that looks like a neon sign.  The last tip was to use lots of film
and to appropriately bracket your pictures by using multiple shutter
speeds and F-stop settings.  I would suggest that you forget your Polaroid
and use a 35mm SLR which is not one of the point-n-shoot types. I use
a Canon AE-1.  The bracketing is the most useful of all these tips, I
wasted a few hours running simulations to be photographed, just to find
that I had seriously underexposed my film.  If I had more $$ I would have
bracketed properly.  

Happy Snapping,
Bill Murphy
murphy@newton.physics.purdue.edu