LED lighting and rolling bar faults

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Mic Gruchy

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LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostSun Jul 20, 2014 5:54 am

I recently shot under LED fixtures in a studio and could not remove a rolling bar fault running down vertically through the image. I lessened the problem by adjusting the shutter angle but couldn't remove it while shooting 25 FPS Pro Rez. Don't know true exact details of the fixtures but they were a combination of moving lights.

Any thoughts out there?
Mic Gruchy
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Mac Jaeger

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Re: LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostSun Jul 20, 2014 9:18 am

LED lights "flicker" at high frequencies, especially when they are not running at full brightness. The frequency of the flicker and the shutter frequency interfere, and in combination with rolling shutter sensors they create "brightness bands" to roll over the image.

Ways to reduce/remove the problem include changing shutter speed and frequency to combinations where the exposure time is a multiple of the lights' duty intervall - but with some lights that's almost impossible, especially when there are different lights involved, as i often find on amateur stages...
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Mic Gruchy

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Re: LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostSun Jul 20, 2014 1:20 pm

Thank you for your knowledge Mac!
There were in fact multiple different LED fixtures so I had no chance to know what timing was in the flicker cycle. Is this flicker related to AC power? Does anyone know how to time and assess this light star? Also how does shutter angle relate to sensor scan rate?
Mic Gruchy
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Robert Niessner

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Re: LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostSun Jul 20, 2014 4:24 pm

There are possibilities to remove the flickering in post.
Free: VirtualDub and Deflicker filter or the built in temporal smoother, but only 8 bit support
Mid price: Deflicker filter from Digital Anarchy
High price: Deflicker filter from RevisionFX
Saying "Thx for help!" is not a crime.
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Dustin Svehlak

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Re: LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostSun Jul 20, 2014 5:52 pm

I've run into a similar problem with the BMCC but the Pocket, in the exact same location, did not have the same behavior. I opened a ticket with Blackmagic thinking my BMCC was busted, but they chalked it up to a sensor difference.

That was with my BMCC EF, I now have the MFT version but have not shot in the same environment yet.
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JimmySpets

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Re: LED lighting and rolling bar faults

PostTue Jul 22, 2014 8:15 am

That's a problem because of how LED lights are designed, to dim the lights they are turned on and off in short pulses, on cheaper lights the frequency is low enough for cameras to note it, the rolling band is because the led:s where of when the sensor where capturing them.
It's a common problem with all cameras and the only good solution is to get other LED:s.
Another common problem is that RGB LED:s may look very different in the camera compared to your eye.

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