Amateur snapper here. How does one deal with the problem of flickering/strobing florescent lights? I bought a softbox kit off ebay. 135w fluorescent bulbs. But I'm getting flickering in the viewfinder, and banding in the results.
I know why it's happening, as in I understand the nature of fluorescent light flicking on and off to 50hz or 60hz or whatever. But how is it dealt with?
Cheers
Longer shutter speed.
Either lower your ISO or aperture to compensate for increased exposure, or turn down the lights if they have that option.
Thanks,
No options on the lights. So I'll look into the shutter speed. I'm using an iPhone (don't ask) with VSCO and/or Camera+ so hope that's an option...
Change them for LED bulbs?
Yes. I think that might happen in the future. It's a learning curve...
So as I understand it, one must cover a complete cycle by setting shutter speed to 1/50s... thanks footflaps for the link.
Well you never stop learning.
Thanks Plython, that made sense and I'm able to tweak those parameters in VSCO.
can you change the shutter on an iPhone? you may bet able to do that with one of those raw shooting/recording apps. if that doesn't work the ‘hot’ tungsten lights will give less flicker as they do not cool down during the gap in the cycle.
Shoot slower than the flicker. Usually 50th or lower.
The banding is due to the electronic shutter. If you used a camera with a mechanical shutter, it would probably avoid this.
Also LEDs can flicker. Though usually it is much higher frequency than fluorescent bulbs, so less noticeable.
might just be the scan speed of the electronic viewfinder combination with the lights, shoot slow enough and the images will be fine. might have to live with the viewfinder.
can you change the shutter on an iPhone?
Yup, you need to download a 3rd party app to do it, but there are many that I think allow up to a 30s shutter.
Yes, one can do this with two apps that I have at the moment. VSCO and Camera+
I'm gonna go down to the mancave in a bit and have a play around, but as I understand it one must set the shutter speed to match the mains frequency of 50hz, so 1/50s, then set the ISO to compensate (thanks Plython). Does it have to be dead on 1/50s, or does it just need to be lower?
Reason I ask is, just having a mess around now, VSCO allows you to dial in any number between 1/1000 and 1/2.0. Camera+ is in increments, nearest to 1/50s being 1/45 and 1/60
I'll have a play around later anyway and report my results. Interesting stuff!
What I would do, is instead of trying to match the shutter speed to the frequency of a light,
I would just have the lowest ISO possible which should give you a good couple of seconds long exposure - obviously you'll need a tripod.
That should eliminate all banding and give you a consistent exposure, I would of thought!
Admittedly I've never tried this before on an iPhone so maybe the matching frequency thing is the answer, but in my mind doing the above should be simpler and work. ISO might behave differently also
EDIT:
If your light source is too bright, you can always do hacks like taping paper to the light to dampen the intensity.
I believe they actually flicker at 100hz due to the rectifying effect.
Anyway, 1/50 will work, then integer multiples too, so 1/25, 1/12.5 etc. And as above I suspect 1/100th will work too.
Once you're below, maybe 1/2s, you've got so many complete cycles in the shitter time it won't matter anymore.
Edit: no, wait, I'm not gonna edit that typo.
😀
Must be the rectumfrying effect...
The banding is due to the electronic shutter. If you used a camera with a mechanical shutter, it would probably avoid this.
This is the problem, as highlighted in the subsequent post, it's due to the way electronic shutters read the sensor.
It's not just confined to camera phones either. The new and super expensive Sony A9, which is touted as having 20fps, only achieves this with the electronic shutter (the mechanical only manages 5fps). It makes is problematic to shoot indoor floodlit sports venues, which is what it was designed for.