I am a researcher and often have to take photographs of material from microfiche cards.
The problem that I have been encountering is that on non-digital readers, there is a bright lamp behind the screen. Besides the damage to my eyes, it causes the center of the screen to be very bright. It isn't entirely noticeable when looking at it, but when photographing it is easily apparent:
My camera (Canon S95) adjusts the ISO and brightness based on the average for the scene. Since the center is so much brighter than everything else, it darkens the image as a whole. This makes it so the center is not washed out, but it also makes the outer areas extremely dark and difficult to read. It seems that the problem is that the camera only has a single ISO setting; it can't have ISO be set dynamically for all sections of the image.
The images as they come out, look like this:
With images such as these, what is the best way to make them no longer washed out? I have tried using the Photoshop filters for Levels/Curves, and I can get the outer areas to be more legible - but it washes out the center.
How should I approach this problem? What settings should I use on my camera (I am not afraid of manual mode) to take the best photographs in this situation? Is it possible to edit the images with Photoshop afterwards, and if so is there a way to automate this process instead of having to do it for each image?