[Charlie]

Why does the camera not take good photos of a vintage set's screen?

Perhaps this has been discussed before. I looked back a year and found nothing.

We've all seen it. Take a picture of a working set and there's a bar in there somewhere. Or, you see a scan (best I can describe it) that starts in one corner and ends in the other.

Today, with places such as YouTube, there are so many videos of working sets. On color sets, it seems that the color doesn't appear correct. It seems that blue is usually dominant. Red is there, but quite limited. Green almost seems completely gone. Because of this, all secondary colors look way off.

While watching videos on YouTube, I know that some of the people producing these videos are "top notch" regarding the quality of their work. Some of these people are members here. I have no doubt in their restoration abilities. On the other hand, the videos they post (or photos here) still look off.

When I recap a set, I end up taking sooo many photos before I find one I like enough to post. Many times, blue ends up making a halo around the edges of the screen. I try turning on certain lights in the room while turning off others. Or, I wait till daylight in the afternoon while the sun is coming in from the West. Many times the color looks overdriven.

Many of the photos I take look really off... but I finally get one that looks good. I don't bother with videos since it seems they never look good.

Black and white sets are no easier. Many times, they look realy blue in a photo compared to what you actually see.

It seems I have better luck taking photos with my cel phone camera compared to my digital camera.

So what gives? Why do these photos look nothing like what we actually see in person? What are the annomalies we see in photos? Is there a way to reduce them? Would we have better luck using a film camera instead of digital? Any tips on taking photos?