Not sure if this is the correct forum (or even if there is one on AVS) but I'm trying to get a good shot of the front of my HT. My problem is everything is flat black and I have a HP screen. When I take a shot the screen overpower and the rest is left in the dark. I have tried to do some lighting without the flash but the flat black is such a light sponge that I can't light up the room. Below is an example of the best picture I have been able to get. Below it is a picture of the same wall pre screen and what I would like to get.

Have an Olympus E-300 Volt SLR (if that helps)

http://photos.imageevent.com/williamjulien/hometheater/large/_A062802.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/williamjulien/hometheater/large/_A052799.JPG

Try using the manual settings, open the aperature (lower f/ number) and lower the shutter speeds. You will need a tripod. You may also need to raise the iso. The best way would be to do it without a flash, but it looks like you don't have much light in there, so that probably won't work.

CJ

The screenshot threads in the CRT and digital projector forums have some chatter on this topic. You might want to run searches in those threads.

tripod is your friend. set a fix exposure like f8 (to get more details) then play with shutter speed to get a good balance of the lighting on camera vs actual. To assist in focus, either use manual focus or put something temporary near the screen so the camera can focus on that. Once the focus it good, switch to manual focus so it doesn't change. now just fine tune it a bit.

For a point and shoot, I tend to just the timer function on a tripod and leave everything at auto without flash.

Lighting a home theater can be very complicated. First off, the dynamic range is very large, much larger than your camera can capture. In order to do it properly you either need to use off camera lighting to illuminate the darker areas or blend multiple exposures. Neither is easy, but blending exposures is probably easier than off camera lighting. If you decide to blend multiple exposures I can add some more on that subject.

If you want to try just one exposure, then as others have suggested use a tripod, select a moderate aperture, like f/8, and stick with a fairly low ISO, like 200 or 400 to decrease noise. Meter the screen and adjust your shutter speed so that your camera will overexpose the screen by about 2 stops. This will raise the exposure to a point where the blacks might show some detail, but remember that you painted the screen wall and installed fabric to eat light. It is doing its job, so showing detail will not be easy.