Taking Pictures of Screens in Football Stadiums

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Tiptoptommy

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I've been given the job of taking photo's of advertising LCD screens in football concourses and jumbotrons at football stadiums and was looking for a bit of advice...

My background is film/video. I shoot weddings and corporates on the 5D, and for video we shoot fully manual but I have never taken stills on it.

I have a Sony RX100 which I know is a very good campact camera but unsure whether it would be able to take good pictures in a concourse at night time? Or of a jumbotron screen across a football pitch?

I could hire a canon SLR with a 24-70 and 70-200 but would prefer not to hire because of the cost.

Then there's the technical aspect of taking a picture of the screens, I was chatting to a photographer over the weekend who suggested taking pictures of the screens square on to make sure that I got a decent picture and then photoshopping the image to the other pictures

Any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciated
 
Bear in mind that most large video screens have a low refresh rate, you may have to try various shutter speeds to capture the image. If there is a lot of movement in the advert you will often find that the top half of the image won't match the bottom if the speed is too low.
 
The photographer I spoke to suggested that it wasn't the shutter speed but the focal length and angle that would reduce the rolling/banding effect on the screens, not the shutter speed?

So if I was a certain distance from the screen it would appear OK

I always thought it was the shutter speed that affected the rolling/banding but he said not!
 
Tiptoptommy said:
The photographer I spoke to suggested that it wasn't the shutter speed but the focal length and angle that would reduce the rolling/banding effect on the screens, not the shutter speed?

So if I was a certain distance from the screen it would appear OK

I always thought it was the shutter speed that affected the rolling/banding but he said not!
Click to expand...

The 'photographer' you spoke to didn't know his arse from his elbow.;)

Johnsy is bang on with his advice, and you've no chance without camera you can fully control (why can't you use the 5d?)
 
Haha well he wasn't the best photographer!

The 5D isn't mine, it's owned by the guy I work with and he's away with his kit

I can control shutter/aperture/ISO manually on my RX100 and I can shoot in RAW.

But it turns out the job might require some video footage anyway so might have to use a 5D (there is a game on Friday night but we have a wedding on Saturday so he might be a bit wary about lending kit out the night before a wedding!)

Any advice for taking pictures of screens?
 
Tiptoptommy said:
Any advice for taking pictures of screens?
Click to expand...

Think about your shutter speed in relation to the screen's refresh rate.

If the screen is in an elevated position, think about minimising perspective distortion.

Think about your exposure the client expects to see the screen and its surroundings with both properly exposed.

Think about white balance.
 
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