How to shoot LED panel on electronics?

mediaspin360 · Apr 22, 2010

Need advise on lighting or camera settings on how to shoot a GPS device with a live map on the LED screen...
I have a white background and 2 softboxes. Using Canon 5D Mark II.

Thanks.

rallysman · Apr 22, 2010

LED or LCD?

Assuming LCD, the easiest way would be to take a picture and expose the screen properly (no flash) and then expose the case properly and layer it

Derrel · Apr 22, 2010

You need an exposure that renders the LED display properly, and an exposure that renders the housing adequately, with no distracting reflections on the screen, so light the product accordingly. Establish the exact camera/lens position and angle on a tripod, and illuminate the product with your lights. The tripod is to maintain a precise point of view so that the reflections caused by the lighting source are not distracting,and that the LED's screen area does not have an image-killing highlight from the softbox face. A tripod-mounted camera locked down tight will also allow multiple exposures with the exact registration of the image.

Use the correct aperture for your lighting on the housing, and use a shutter speed that is slow enough to allow the LED to register appropriately. You might find that an elevated ISO setting will give you the right density on the LED display. This is the old-school way to shoot this in one exposure, in-camera. If you can black out your studio, you can also shoot this in two exposures, one that is done in the dark with JUST the LED display, creating an exposure of that at say f/11 or f/13 at 2 seconds at ISO 200 (guesstimate) and then creating a second exposure with the LCD actually turned off, and illuminating the housing with flash or continuous lighting, and then blending the two exposures. Again, this is the old-school method of doing it, as it was done in the pre-Photoshop era.

VovanUlama878 · Jul 19, 2010

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Village Idiot · Jul 19, 2010

mediaspin360 said:
Need advise on lighting or camera settings on how to shoot a GPS device with a live map on the LED screen...
I have a white background and 2 softboxes. Using Canon 5D Mark II.

Thanks.

flashes or hotlights?

If you're using flashes, you can do it all in one shot.

Setup a tripod and expose for the LCD/LED. Then place the softboxes to the left and right so that the angle of the reflection from the light does not bounce back to your camera and adjust them to expose the rest of the object. This will illuminated the object without causing glare.

I did something similar with the below object for a client who wanted a book. Rom can see that there's no glare on the LED screen of the clock as the light is above and angled down. The scissors are placed at an angle on the clock which catch the light reflecting the bean into the camera giving the big highlighted glare.

Angle of incidence lesson from Photoflex:
Angle of Reflection = Angle of Incidence

You should be able to do this using hotlights, but depending on what you're using, you may have to play with positioning and settings a bit more.