Tips for Photographing Mobile Game Screens or Displays Clearly?

[cocguidehub]

Hi everyone,
I had a question related to photography that I hope some experienced members here can help with. Sometimes I try to take photos of screens (phones, tablets, or monitors) when I want to show gameplay, settings, or tutorials. But I often run into problems like screen glare, flickering lines, or colors that don’t look the same as they do on the device. I’m not sure if it’s because of shutter speed, lighting, or camera settings.
Recently I was trying to capture a few screenshots and photos while writing about a mobile game strategy guide. The site I’m working on discusses tips and guides for players, and sometimes I want to show the screen or gameplay moments in a clear photo. For example, when working on content related to (removed link) I realized that getting clean photos of a phone screen is harder than I expected.
So I wanted to ask the photography experts here:

• What camera settings work best for photographing phone or monitor screens?
• Is there a specific shutter speed that avoids those rolling lines?
• Do you recommend using certain lighting or angles to reduce glare?

I’d really appreciate any tips or suggestions from people who have experience with this kind of photography. Thanks in advance!

 

[Clovishound]

I've not really had much experience photographing scenes with a screen in it. I can address the glare issue. Try using a circular polarizing filter. You will need to turn the filter (it's designed to be rotated while mounted on the camera), until the glare goes away. If you don't own one, they can be a little pricey. I would advise against getting one of the really cheap ones off of Amazon. Many, if not most will seriously degrade your image quality. There are some mid priced brands that do a good job. Note: you may not be able to eliminate all glare if you have lighting coming from different angles. The polarizer will only work along one plane.

As to Flickering lines, I would imagine the shutter speed required to eliminate this would depend on the device itself. I would think refresh rate would be the determining factor. I would suggest taking some test shots and lower the shutter speed until the lines disappear. You may need different minimum shutter speeds for different devices.

Here is probably the only image I have that has a screen in it. It was shot at 1/15 sec. I didn't use a polarizer. I shot it with a mirrorless camera, so I could see any glare in the viewfinder. I don't remember if I had to change the shooting angle to remove any glare, or just got lucky.