Lighting a room with multiple LCD and Plasma screens

NorthernNikon

NorthernNikon

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Has anyone experience of lighting a room with Speedlights that contains multiple LCD or Plasma screens in it?

I know that you should be able to sync the speedlights to the refresh rate of the screen (if you know it) but won't having more than one screen increase the chances of at least one screen being out of sync?

The images on the screens are key so it's not like I can turn them off.
 
well expose for the screens and then add flash, no idea about syncing to multiple screens though, maybe just shoot a few exposures and hope
 
whilst they do have refresh rates, they don't scan like CRTs
so you won't see the typical banding
but
you are going to swamp the light if you use flash

not sure quite what the answer is here
try at home with your laptop, LCD monitor?
 
Meter from the screens to get a good exposure then set that on the camera, bounce the flash off the ceiling to light the adjacent areas, you will have probably to balance the light between the flash and the ambient and you may need to resort to manual on the flash.

Bouncing the flash from the ceiling will raise the ambient light without causing glare on the displays.

Good luck
 
I only meant hit and hope with the screens synching not with the flash/ambient exposure, but yeah sounded worse than it was meant to ....
 
david1701 said:
I only meant hit and hope with the screens synching not with the flash/ambient exposure, but yeah sounded worse than it was meant to ....
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No problems. I may be lucky, the rooms have great lighting for video conferencing, but I'm more concerned about how the screens appear. I read, though can't find where now, that you can sync Speedlights to the refresh rate of LCDs but maybe my memory's playing tricks on me and it was CRTs.

Either way, I've got access to the rooms the night before to suss it out first, but it could prove to be a bit trickier than would first appear.
 
Mark Cleghorn has a tutorial of just that kind of corporate shoot on his phototraining4U site. I watched it last week so it's not completely slipped my mind yet!

The logo on the screen was paramount to the shoot but he did not mention syncing the flashes. What he did do was use three speedlights to light the one person in the room and the key areas. One main light with a softbox on the subject and then lighting the rest of the room with the other two. He hid the flashes behind desks and on the floor to get them going where he wanted. With the Nikon CLS you should be able to ratio them quite effectively.

He did place one light behind a screen at one point and fired it back towards a wall producing a nice halo around the screen. Watch out for relections of flashes if you are dealing with multiple screens though.

Let us know how you get on too :)
 
A CPL filter will also work well on LCD monitors so if you where really stuck you could adjust the brightness of them using a CPL then balance to the ambient that way.

LCD monitors dont work like CRT's, there isnt a noticable scan so basically as long as you get the exposure balanced it should be fine.
 
not true mole i just tried taking a picture of my lappy n with the wrong shutter speed I can see the lines ......
 
How about... Fix the camera on a tripod then do one exposure just for the screens, then a second exposure lighting everything else how you want it. Then layer the two images up and blend/mask to taste.

I did a job a bit like this a couple of weeks ago, Barney, can't post it here as I don't have copyright but PM me if you'd like to see how it came out.
 
Flashman said:
How about... Fix the camera on a tripod then do one exposure just for the screens, then a second exposure lighting everything else how you want it. Then layer the two images up and blend/mask to taste.

I did a job a bit like this a couple of weeks ago, Barney, can't post it here as I don't have copyright but PM me if you'd like to see how it came out.
Click to expand...

That's the right answer and is the standard method for this type of shoot
 
david1701 said:
not true mole i just tried taking a picture of my lappy n with the wrong shutter speed I can see the lines ......
Click to expand...

never notice that before, laptop screens might be different but certainly on any lcd's i've tried it's never made a difference.
 
Flashman said:
How about... Fix the camera on a tripod then do one exposure just for the screens, then a second exposure lighting everything else how you want it. Then layer the two images up and blend/mask to taste.

I did a job a bit like this a couple of weeks ago, Barney, can't post it here as I don't have copyright but PM me if you'd like to see how it came out.
Click to expand...

Thanks Keith, I was planning on doing a split shoot but it's getting the screens to show well in the shot that's my concern. I'll drop you a pm in the morning re your shot.
 
pretty sure if it has a refresh rate you will see the lines as one line refreshes, but maybe tv panels refresh as one, my lcd tv cum monitor will show lines at home
 
My dell 2004 fpw doesnt show any lines at any shutter speed, I just assumed most lcd's did a progressive scan in the same fashion so you dont actually have an actual refresh rate as such.
 
david1701 said:
pretty sure if it has a refresh rate you will see the lines as one line refreshes, but maybe tv panels refresh as one, my lcd tv cum monitor will show lines at home
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a longer exposure get over this problem, as long as the screen image is stationary?
 
it would mr pants I hadn't twigged :S

so if they refresh at say 60hz then 1/60th would be fine, some are 100hz panels but i'm pretty sure 1/60th would cover all panels
 
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