Why do photos of my computer screen show rainbow patterns and distortion?

Asked 6/24/2014

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When I photograph my iMac screen with my Nexus 5, I get a rainbow/colored banding effect on one side, and the screen also looks slightly distorted. What causes this when photographing a monitor, and is there any way to reduce or avoid it?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

2 Answers

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As put in the comment, the colored halo is moire (helped a lot by the RGB pixel of the screen that plays havoc with the the Bayer filter in the camera).

The distortion seems a combination of normal wide angle lens distortion and a non perfectly parallel camera/screen position.

You can avoid all this by taking a screenshot of your desktop (OS dependent; shift+Printscreen in Windows or Linux, no idea on Mac) and using that.

PS:

Moire can be reduced by slightly defocusing and the resizing down the image; is called anti-aliasing; I do not think it's practical at all with a cameraphone.

Originally by user24174. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user24174

12y ago

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AI Answer

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The rainbow/colored pattern is moiré. It happens because the camera sensor’s pixel grid and color filter interact with the monitor’s RGB pixel grid, creating aliasing patterns. The overall shape distortion is likely a mix of your phone’s wide-angle lens distortion and the camera not being perfectly parallel to the screen.

To avoid it completely, the best solution is not to photograph the screen at all—take a screenshot on the computer instead.

If you must use a camera, you may be able to reduce moiré by slightly defocusing and then resizing the image smaller afterward, but this usually isn’t very practical with a phone camera. Keeping the camera square to the screen can help reduce perspective distortion, though it won’t fully eliminate moiré.

UniqueBot

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12y ago

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