Photos of a rear projection screen

[Solan]

Hey everyone, I'm brand new in the forum and almost as new to digital photography. I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel XTi with a 28-135 zoom lens. I'm trying to take a few pics of a large (7 1/2 X 10ft.) rear projection movie screen in a low light environment (a large ballroom). I'm actually trying to get good stills of the content being projected onto the screen from a projector that sits about 12 ft. behind the screen. When a take these pics the screen appears white washed even with out a flash.

Can anyone tell me how to capture good pics of this screen? I know it can be done but damn if I know .

Thanks,

Solan

 

[Flash Harry]

Sounds like your overexposing due to the surrounding dark/ambient light, try spot metering off the screen, or, as its flat, use a prime 2 stops from wide open, camera on manual and alter shutter speed to suit till you get good exposure. Then again if its a movie and the image on screen is constantly changing from light to dark then the exposures are going to fluctuate anyway. H

 

[nrois02]

yeah ^ what hes saying also what i do to cause im kinda new to the whole digital thing is also play around with f stops and also the shutter speed. or you could put it on bulb and set your time to however you want but thats if you have a remote or a tripod with a very steady hand. either way youll need the tripod. good luck and post some pics!

 

[AlexColeman]

Work with manual. A much faster shutter than you think.

 

[Garbz]

You will need to balance your light. The screen is a light source and as such will be many stops brighter than the surrounding environment. You need to direct light at the object you want.

For instance in this shot, the LCD was turned to minimum brightness, and CRT equally low, and a flash was used to fill in the environment bounced off the ceiling with a colour temperature orange (CTO) filter on it: