Take TV Pictures
Taking pictures from the television screen
using your digital camera is quite easy.
If you have ever tried taking pictures straight from your television screen, you might have sometimes noticed horizontal lines running up and down the picture. That is because a TV screen is "painted" one pixel at a time from top to bottom. The lines appear on your pictures when you use a shutter speed that is too fast and that "freezes" the lines on the television image.
Kodak Easyshare DX6490
Shutter-Priority mode, Spot
9.8mm, 1/90 sec., F3.2, ISO 80
In this One-Pager � tutorial, we'll give you the one simple trick that you need to know to be able to take television picture using your digital camera. Ready? All right, simply use a shutter speed of 1/30 sec. and preferably slower. The idea is to use a shutter speed that synchronizes with the the painting of the TV image and voila -- no moving horizontal lines.
You might want to experiment with different shutter speeds, such as 1/15 sec., 1/25 sec., (but less than 1/30 sec.) to see where you get optimum quality on your TV using your digital camera. Of course, to be able to set the shutter speed on your camera, you need to be able to switch to Shutter-Priority mode. The following pictures were taken with the Kodak Easyshare DX6490, and I find that a shutter speed of 1/15 sec. is optimum. With 1/30 sec., a few lines is apparent at larger image size.
For images of a computer screen, try 1/20 sec. and slower, and get a meter reading directly from the screen.
Dora
Shutter-Priority, Spot
9.8mm, 1/15 sec., F3.6, ISO 80
Max & Ruby
Shutter-Priority, Spot
9.8mm, 1/15 sec., F5.6, ISO 80
Smallville
Shutter-Priority mode, Spot
11.5mm, 1/30 sec., F3.2, ISO 80
Star Trek Enterprise
Shutter-Priority mode, Spot
11.5mm, 1/30 sec., F3.2, ISO 80
