Don’t Use Plasma Screens on Stage

Big screens are really great for use on stage. You can display big graphics, change them at a whim, and reuse them for the next show. There’s just one thing you have to be careful of when putting a big screen on stage. Never, ever, evar put a plasma screen on stage if you want to make a photograph with it in the background.

Why? Because when you take a sequence of photos at a reasonable shutter speed (1/250th in this case), you’ll end up with a series of photos that look like this:

Each of these photos was made from the same angle with the exact same background filled with a plasma display. All those purples and greens aren’t supposed to be there. Horrid, isn’t it? Trust me, nobody on this particular production is happy about this. The only possible solution—other than swapping out the display for and LCD one or using backlit projection—is to shoot at 1/60th of a second. That’s not a recipe for success either.

Bottom line, if you’re planning an event—corporate, conference, TEDx, whatever—and are going to use screens on stage, make very sure they aren’t plasma. Then double check and then triple check. It’ll save grief later.