On my recent trip to Australia I had to deal with lighting issues. Traveling light I brought 2 Lowel Pro-lights and a Lowel Tota-lite with me. I used voltage convertors so I could run them, and left my camera on 60 hz at 30 fps. Normally that worked fine except for one interview.
This interview I only used only one fill with the majority of the light flooding in from windows. There was some florescent lighting also in the room. As the interview progressed, the sun started setting and the exposure changed and the florescent lighting ratio became more prominent, and the 50hz caused some real strobing and flickering problems.
It’s important to understand why we get this flickering effect. All florescent flicker, but our eyes and brain tune it out. Most video cameras have rolling shutters and that is what causes problems. As the shutter rolls across the frame it catches a small part of the flickering if the shutter is not in sequence with the flicker of the florescent. Global shutters would fix this problem. In the US the voltage is 60hz so you need a shutter speed of 1/60 and 30fps. For countries with 50hz you need 1/50 and 25fps.
. BCC Dropout Fixer easily restores tape based damaged footage with field or frame dropouts. BCC Reframe reformats and stylizes vertical cell phone video footage into a standard 16x9 aspect for broadcast. Includes options to stylize the foreground and background with blur, stretch and mirroring New Effects in BCC 10. Bcc Flicker Fixer Download Dll Fixer Download For discussion of some of the issues concerning luminence flicker (not video field flicker) and how to avoid it, see for example About flicker problems by David Satz, Flicker-Free Lights, and Why They are Important to You from B&H Photo-Video, and Rough Guide to Flicker-Free HD Shooting by Art Adams.
Prevention is key. Set your shutter speed in the US to 1/25 and shoot by florescent and you can generate flicker. This is a real concern if you are using a DSLR. The SONY FS700 takes care of this for you. If you buy it in the US it comes set for 60hz and you don’t have access to the 1/25 shutter speed. When traveling you can switch the FS700 to 50hz and then have access to the 1/25 shutter speed. Be advised that you should start with blank media as you will have to format the card when switching between 50hz and 60hz. I suppose the FS100 has the same feature in the main menu.
You can download the video at the Vimeo link below and scroll through the image frame by frame and you’ll see what you are up against. I would advise downloading as the Vimeo compression does a number on the resolution and makes it difficult to really evaluate the problem or the solution.
Of course if you are reading this right now as a result of a search for your problem you will have your own footage to examine! To really demonstrate this you need to see a shot at night, lit only by an out of phase florescent, it is truly hideous.
I found only one fix that is practical, it is using Boris FX BCC Flicker Fixer found in the Boris Continuum Complete package. Nothing else seems to work. It is an expensive program. I don’t know about you but I don’t feel like spending 3x what the program costs to buy a bunch of plugins, most of which just slow your program down. They have now broken the program up in sections, but the image restoration program is still $299.
At this writing Boris has a trial period, so you can do what I did. I downloaded the plugin, saved my work and exported the video. Later after the trial expired Boris makes the plugin unusable. When you are done you will need to use their uninstaller. If you try to use it there are several methods to chose from. I found the simplest method with no options to work best for me.
In all fairness to Boris at the time they had the complete product marked on sale 1/2 off on their web site. I tried to buy it, wanting to compensate them, but when I tried to check out the sale price was cancelled. I called and asked what was up and they said the sale was over, and that I should ignore the price as advertised on their web site.
So be advised to be careful when shooting by florescent. If you are not you can trash your video and you will be out of luck unless you have deep pockets and can afford the program.
BCC Flicker Fixer Removes Flicker, Emulsion Blotching, Artifacting, and Image Weaving
Boston, MA - February 26, 2013 - Boris FX, the leading developer of integrated VFX and workflow technology for video and film, today announced that David Strohmaier, Restoration Producer for Cinerama, Inc., is using Boris Continuum Complete's Flicker Fixer in Adobe After Effects to remove flicker, emulsion blotching, and artifacting during the film restoration process.
Cinerama was the first of a number of novel processes introduced during the 1950s, when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in best attire for the evening.
Much of the original negative material was poorly stored, often in warehouses and vaults that were not temperature or humidity controlled. Strohmaier inspects the reels by hand and often finds that they are faded and damaged. The films are then sent off for scanning on a Scanmaster 4000 at Image Trends in Austin, Texas. At Image Trends, as the scanning is happening, a special process called 'Digital Ice' is applied to remove the surface dirt from each frame. The scans for each portion of the triptych are composited as one complete widescreen image and the files are then turned over to Philip Hodgetts, the project's post production consultant. Hodgetts converts the files to a 2K QuickTime for Final Cut Pro. Strohmaier then reconstructs the film, supervising final clean up and color work as well as the syncing of the 7 channel 26 fps soundtrack.
Strohmaier has found that some of the individual panels have a flicker between them - a result of the way old negatives fade over the years. In the past, Strohmaier manually corrected the flickers which entailed hours of painstaking keyframing. It was after doing three such restorations that David discovered Boris Continuum Complete's Flicker Fixer. He downloaded the trial version and gave it a try in Adobe After Effects.
'I was very much surprised by the results,' commented Strohmaier. 'BCC Flicker Fixer was quite fast and did more than just cure the flicker. The filter also succeeded in removing the emulsion blotching that occurred due to the age of the film - as well as the artifacting in the scanned negative.'
'By setting the Temporal Smoothing value to 1, BCC Flicker Fixer removed all of the flicker as well as the emulsion blotching that appeared in different panels of the three way scan,' continued Strohmaier. 'The process was so successful that I have gone back into two productions that were finished and applied BCC Flicker Fixer to several previously un-fixable shots.'
Strohmaier also noted, 'Another benefit of BCC Flicker Fixer is that it appears to have removed perceived image weaving that was a result of the poor negative. Before using the filter, I had never been able to fix this weaving.'
Moving forward, BCC Flicker Fixer will play an integral role in Strohmaier's restoration work. He regularly speaks at film festivals and other events about the film restoration process and how BCC Flicker Fixer can help.
Before and after clips are available for viewing on the Boris FX website at https://borisfx.com/customer-stories/96611969-cinerama-restores-films-with-bcc-flicker-fixer/
About Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for Cinerama, Inc., the corporation which was formed to market the process.
About Boris Continuum Complete
Boris Continuum Complete delivers the most comprehensive VFX plug-in suite ever created for Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony, Avid NewsCutter, Avid DS, and Sony Vegas Pro. Over 200 filters across 16 comprehensive categories of effects include 3D particles, image restoration tools such as Noise Reduction and Flicker Fixer, lens flares and lights, chroma keys and mattes, color correction tools, blurs, glows, and film effects.
About Boris FX
Founded in 1995, Boris FX is a leading developer of VFX, compositing, titling, and workflow tools for broadcast, post-production, and film professionals. Boris FX products have grown to serve over a million artists worldwide, with a customer base encompassing network and broadcast television clients such as ABC, BBC, CBS, Discovery, ESPN, and Turner, post-production facilities such as The Ant Farm, Digital Kitchen, and Troika Design Group, and educational and government institutions such as Video Symphony, Columbia College, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Air Force. The company's success lies in its ability to tightly integrate and leverage technologies through strong partnerships with industry-leading developers of video editing software and hardware including Adobe, Apple, Avid, Corel, Grass Valley, Nexidia, and Sony.
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All trademarks used herein, whether recognized or not, are the properties of their respective companies.