Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/12/01

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Subject: Re: Photographing my TV
From: "Joe B." <Joe@azurite.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 01:48:09 +0000

In article <199612012219.PAA06011@phobos.frii.com>, Ben Holmes
<bholmes@frii.com> writes
>Anyone know what the minimum shutter speed required to make a picture of my
>TV w/out the scanning effect? I've been making strange pictures with my son
>in front of the set and keep getting the raster-scan pattern.

I've found 1/15 usually works but I'd use 1/8 if I could. But I'm in the
UK and we don't use NTSC or whatever it is, but some other standard.
What I find useful is to tape the program if I can and photograph from a
frozen single frame with the camera on a tripod. With the vcr still
picture adjusted for optimum (ie not flickering) this works quite well.
My daughter did a series of stills this way from a (pop) music video
that absolutely floored her schoolfriends. We went back and forwards
through the tape picking out the decisive moments and shooting them-
great fun. You could see the lines of the screen in her prints but they
were still great pictures. Of course, some credit should go to the
cameraman who shot the film in the first place, and of course there are
copyright issues... And yes, I've done it with a Leica. A winder helps a
lot- saves continually readjusting the camera on the tripod, and a
looooong cable release enables me to sit back with the vcr remote
control in my hand and do the whole thing in a relatively relaxed
fashion.
- -- 
Joe B.