How do you take good color screen shots?

[Phil Nelson]

I hope this is not too far off-topic.

I have seen some great screen shots from others in this forum.

I'm using a Nikon Coolpix digital camera these days, and the live shots never come out very good. If I use a flash, of course the screen is washed out.

With flash suppressed and using a tripod, if I take a pic of the entire TV, the screen is too bright and often too blue. If I zoom in to capture only the screen, then you can't see the rest of the TV (duh).

I have a couple of small photo lights on stands, but if I use those to bounce light around the general area, that doesn't really change the basic equation.

This is an automatic-everything camera. With flash suppressed, it usually picks an exposure time of 1/8 or 1/15 depending on how much of the TV I'm framing.

In the early days of my website, I used my trusty old Nikon 35mm SLR to create photos, but I'm too impatient to wait for film development these days, and I'm not sure the results would be different, anyway. On the other hand, it does accept a blue filter to correct for shooting pics under indoor lights with daylight film.

I'm wondering what equipment and/or tricks people use to get good screen shots . . . .

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html