Exposure While Filming Device Screens?

wwinter86

wwinter86

Hi,
I make products reviews on YouTube and sometimes film devices with LCD screens such as smartphones or smartwatches. I was wondering if anyone could please tell how to get the exposure right while the screen is turned on?
I use manual focus but have the other settings on auto. The trouble I have is if the auto settings have the display right then the room looks dark and vice versa.

My camera: Sony SLT-A57 (DSLR).
 
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Are you using any articifial light specifically for your video, or just shootng with what's already available in the room?

I'm going to take a guess that you're using no added light, and that's the first thing you need to consider. There are effective and inexpensive LED panels out there now that can do the job on a tight budget. Bring the overall light level up for everything in front of the camera and you'll avoid overexposure of LED/LCD screens.

And then you can ditch auto-exposure, which you need to do anyway.
 
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Thanks. Yeah I just use the room light, which is quite a bright LED bulb.
I'll try dimming the screen. Do you mean bringing the device closer to the camera? and is there a recommend iso setting to use for this?
 
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No I meant bringing the 'brightness' of the room and screen closer together.
So making the room brighter and the screen darker is making the difference smaller.

Quite a 'bright bulb' means nothing for film.
What you see as bright can be to dark for the camera.
Besides that: position and distance of a light are important. We can still see the stars at night, but the night is still dark.

Study light: how does it behave when you get closer or further away? When is it hard? When is it soft? Learn to understand dynamic range.
 
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