How can I take acceptable photos from my television with a digital camera, any attempts have been very faint,?

Question

I have been able to eliminate flash reflection in the TV screen by taking at an angle, but the downloaded pictures are very faint.

Answer 1

Turn the flash off, and use a slow shutter speed 1/30 of a second.

Answer 2

I have done it before just for fun; I used a tripod, a reflex digital camera with a zoom lens (a zoom is a most for framing and cropping what you want to photograph), a timer mode (or shutter release to prevent shaking) and some try an error; NO FLASH (the light of the TV is enough is you set the right ISO, shutter speed and f-number.

You need fully manually adjustable camera (for ISO, F-number, and Shutter speed), the automatic modes will not help you because the camera can't understand what you want to do.

Images will not be perfect, (light from a TV screen doesn't behave like light reflected on an object) images are faint as you describe because you might need to fix contrast and brightness using image editing software . Digital photos almost always need some kind of digital fine-tuning; even with a simple free image editing software (included at most computers and digital cameras) you can solve that problems.

One trick I tried was to record on VHS, then replay and hit the pause at the remote; this let me use a slow speed in the camera without worrying about blurring.

Just remember: use manual setting, and try different speeds and ISO combinations.

Answer 3

Firstly, you should ideally be using a digital camera that you can change settings on:
- Turn off the flash completely
- Change the shutter speed, I usually use 1/15 but if it doesn't go this low, go as slow as you can, as the dark band you get on photos from the TV is caused by the way the image is refreshed, and slower speeds minimise this.

If you can't change the shutter speed, you'll just have to play around with the settings, some allow you to increase the exposure by a few notches which usually has a similar effect to slowing shutter speed.
This page has a few tips about other experiments you could try
http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_tv.html

However if you can't turn off your flash, I can only suggest you cover it up somehow!

Whatever method, you should use a tripod to reduce shake and may want to adjust the image on the computer, for example to blur it if it's too obviously made up of lines or dots.

Answer 4

its not really worth trying to take pictures of a tv... if possible get hold of a tv card for your computer... they're on ebay for very little money at the moment...

you'll be able to store the tv broadcast digitally, and take a screen shot of the image playing on your computer screen using screen capture software... do a search for 'screen caps' and you'll find loads of free software available..

it'll be much higher resolution than you'll ever be able to achieve with a digital camera and you won't have to worry about timing, bluring, shutter speed, f-stops or any of the other problems you'll be facing trying to do it with a camera.. good luck...

Answer 5

Use a tripod, a high sensitivity (ISO) and a slow shutter speed. Oh, and as already said, turn the flash off