R3 Anti-Flicker

emdash
Contributor

I shot in a local ice rink the other day and the flicker of the halogens was producing red on my images. I used anti-flicker, but still had the issue. It wasn't all images, but most. In a sports photo group, someone stated to change the anti-flicker to 60hz vs 50hz. I don't see how I can change it unless I set the HF anti-flicker and that changes my shutter speed to whatever I'm setting it to. Obviously, I need my shutter to be faster than 1/50. Any advice on this? I don't want to spend hours post-processing red out of images. This is for still images and not video. I shoot in manual. Lenses: RF 24-70 2.8, EF 70-200 2.8 IS II, EF 400mm 2.8 IS II. This was happening on both my R3 bodies. Shutter varied from 1/320 - 1/1000 except when panning. I tried auto WB and also set the Kelvin. ISO was set to auto and went from 4000-12,800

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16 REPLIES 16

I shoot manual. I had originally set my ISO, but then due to the flicker, the exposure was all over the place, over exposed, under exposed. So I set it to auto ISO to try and compensate. 

Leave the ISO on manual.  Enable Hi-Speed flicker.

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"The right mouse button is your friend."

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

Any of that will help but ultimately Lightroom is the best place to make the best photo. Sounds like you need and want high quality images 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

wq9nsc
Elite
Elite

That probably isn't halogen lighting because halogen is an incandescent source with halogen gas added to reduce emissions from the heated filament being deposited on the glass.  Incandescent lamps have far too much thermal lag to flicker which is why they are a nice light source but they are generally far too inefficient for lighting large sports venues.  So you are dealing with either a discharge type lamp (sodium most likely) or newer LED lighting.

Setting to auto white priority is probably going to give you the best results for the JPG files you need instantly.  In a setting like this, the camera can generally find something white and set color temperature based upon it.  With RAW files you can change color temperature in post but with JPG files you need immediately, auto white priority will probably provide the most consistent color temperature match.

Flicker at 50hz would occur in Europe and some other parts of the world, if you are shooting in North America the line frequency is 60hz.  BUT with a lot of newer lighting, flicker is no longer tied to the line frequency nor is it even stable so you can end up with multiple flicker rates across an arena that are all constantly changing and this impacts both color temperature and exposure.  I have shot on football fields where the white balance is radically different over small sections of the same field and with the newer lighting with lots of additional controls including the goofy "celebration" modes, it isn't going to get any better.

Most of the stuff can be fixed in post pretty easily but that doesn't help with the images that need immediate upload.  So give auto white priority a try and see if that improves the percentage of good captures.

I have never been a fan of anti-flicker because it does impact burst rate and it wasn't infallible even with old school high intensity discharge lighting that flickered at a stable line rate.

Rodger

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

I shoot soccer for two teams where the LED stadium lights vary across the stadium and half the field has LED signage at field level, so I fluctuate between auto WB and setting K temp. Light varies in intensity in different parts of the field and it’s not consistent from game to game either. I also fluctuate between setting ISO and auto ISO. The teams do a light a show every time they score , so lights go from full bright to completely dark and colors from white to green and yellow and purple within fractions of a second. It’s not pleasant. And unfortunately shooting for wire service, you can only do minimal editing in post after the fact but have to submit live with no ability to edit. So I definitely try to get it right in camera as much as possible. 

“  So you are dealing with either a discharge type lamp (sodium most likely) or newer LED lighting. “

My best guess says the red tint is coming from a scoreboard or something similarly overlooked like “EXIT” lights.”

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"The right mouse button is your friend."

Orville
Apprentice

So random, but your photos are gorgeous 

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