NOTHING Removes FLICKER when using a DSLR. WHY oh WHY ??

G

George D.

Well-known member
I am having a hell of a problem with something, and I'm hoping someone can help with this that has mastered the technique.

I am shooting time-lapse of flowers with our Nikon D7000 in a "studio" situation. And no matter what I do I get flicker. I use preset lenses so the aperture does not open and close each time, the camera is on manual on a tripod, shutter speed at 1/20th, ISO = 100, WB = flash, and Studio Strobes for lighting with a Pocket Wizard Plus 2 Transceiver to trigger them. I use the Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 in a laptop PC to trigger the camera at the preset times. All of these are on constant AC power. In Adobe Premier Pro CS5.5 I have the GBD DeFlicker add-on to remove the flicker problem in my Windows7 PC.

But, NOTHING I do seems to cancel out the flicker 100%. And, I can tell you that our client is NOT going to accept that. I have seen other time-lapse shots on the internet of flowers, and there is NO flicker.

What the hell am I doing wrong?

Could it be the Studio Strobes? If so, would a Voltage Regulator help with that?

Somebody out there HAS GOT TO KNOW THE SOLUTION to this problem. If you do - H E L P !! :huh:

In the olden days of film, I never had this problem with cine cameras hooked up to intervelometers. I know DSLRs are notorious for TL flicker, but there MUST be an answer.

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks much.

.

 
Can you post an example?

Just to be perfectly clear, you're shooting stills, not in movie mode?

Most flicker(in video mode) is the shutter speed not being right.
 
Flicker during time lapse capture is pretty common. Even in manual everything mode with the aperture wide open, your DSLR just isn't precise enough to ensure every shot in the sequence will have the exact same exposure. Our eye can easily detect even slight exposure variations. Fixing it post is quite easy if you are a Lightroom user using this product:

http://lrtimelapse.com/

It does a whole lot more than just remove flicker.
 
I've never heard of a "preset lens" amd I've been shooting for a living since the early 90's (and an AD before that... and photo student before that...) which doesn't mean they don't exist, I'm just puzzled by the term.

That said, when I do time lapse, I unlock the lens and rotate it just enough to lock the DOF (you may have to hold the DOF button down to do this?? I don't do it much). Not enough to make the lens loose, just to disable the aperture motion. This will disable auto, but I can't imagine you're using auto-anything for studio time lapse...

Flicker could well be that strobes aren't super accurate with every pop. it would amaze me if they were useable for time lapse, to tell you the truth.

I've only done TL outdoors; I'd probably make tungsten my first try inside, followed by flo's or something. I just can't imagine a strobe is dead-on with every shot. Your shutter speed would have to be within the flicker range of any HMI/HID/Flo you used of course.
 
Boris has a plugin that can reduce flicker from monitors and phase modulated LEDs - maybe it can also work for your problem.
 
Michael,

Thanks for your input.

I've been in the "business" for over 43 years, and have shot on many films and television programs, doing everything from Special Visual Effects to Wildlife Documentaries. So, I do have a little experience. ;)

A "preset" lens is a lens that can be used on a SLR or DSLR and does NOT have an automatic aperture. In other words, the aperture does not close down then open up again when the shutter button is pushed. It is a "completely" manual lens.

Of course, nothing on the camera is "auto" when shooting time-lapse, so you may just have nailed it on the head when you say it could be the strobes. But, at this time, I have no other choice for a light source in the studio. Tungston lights are totally impractical without a complete intervelometer that controls them as well as the camera.

TL outdoors is an entirely different thing, and in many respects, much easier.

.
 
I shoot timelapse outdoors with my D800 and still have to deflicker to some extent all of my work. One big advantage of something like LRTimelapse that I mentioned above is that can access the full raw resolution (in my case 7360 x 4912) to determine the best exposure adjustment for each frame. With a Premire Pro or AE plugin, you are often working with far fewer pixels (e.g. 1920 x 1080) with inferior results.
 
I'm pretty sure somebody could write an AE script to smooth this issue a bit, so, there must be a plugin for that.
 
+1 for the boris plugin - they have an example of it working on the site

.. no I'm not connected with....
 
i use LRtimelapse as well. Takes a learning curve for sure but the deflicker is pretty good. I also use the lens loosening method on my cameras. It's worked well on my t2i, and on my d600. The other option is to use a lens that does not have an aperture controlled by the camera body. Previously with my canon this was easier because i could adapt nikon glass to it and the aperture would be completely manual. Now with my d600 that doesn't work as well
 
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