fluorescent light flicker removal

Alright guys and gals. I have some clips that I just can't get rid of the fluorescent light flicker like I can on some. Most of ya know I uses Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I've tried the tricks I know but just can't do it. I've tried changing frame rate, even rolling shutter repair. Tried off-setting a duplicate clip by one frame. Just can't get it stopped to an acceptable level.

What tricks do ya'll use with Premiere Pro CC or After Effects CC or CS6 versions?

I've shot some stuff in Europe where without realizing it somewhere in the shot is a light that is flickering. My workaround is a pain but it works for some shots depending on how much flicker you see. If it is isolated this will work (or at least it has for me on several occasions). **This method will only work with a static camera**

In After Effects I setup a comp as normal with the footage. Then I duplicate the footage two more times so you have 3 copies. Offset the top clip by 1 frame then offset the second clip by 2 frames (the bottom clip is the master). Now set the layer mode to 'darken' for the two offset clips. If you do a flip-book test you should see smeared motion, but no flicker. Now you just need to mask around the areas that need to be de-flickered.

As I said I've only used this for stuff shot in Europe when the camera was set to 29.976 so you might get away with just a single offset layer or you might need more. Here is an example that worked well - I didn't see the flicker until I got home to Canada but was able to salvage it with this method. In this case I did a soft edge animated garbage mask around the train and the guy at the end of the platform. You can still see some flicker but I got rid of about 90% of it. The lights all along the top of screen and the reflection in the walls and on the floor were flickering like crazy.

Please let me know if my instructions are not clear.



I just remembered I did it for this shot too. I need to pay more attention when I shoot in a subway :)

Yup same thing, some clips I shot a couple months ago in Europe. I tried the duplicate layer and offset by a frame. You are right in many cases this does a good job. Just too much flicker to hide it so far.

Try Flicker Free from Digital Anarchy its really the secret weapon of the pros:
https://digitalanarchy.com/Flicker/main.html

Boris Continuum Complete plugin suite has a bunch of awesome tools as well including a fully customisable flicker fixer tool.

FlickerFree from Digital Anarchy seems to be the best. A few months ago I tested pretty much all of them in AE. FF won simply due to speed. The end result from all of them was the same. The upside to FF is that it only requires one process or step to accomplish the same as others required calculation passes etc. Price wise - they are all about in the same ball park.

Thanks Andy

Hey - does this FF thing work on banding from strobes and flashes?

Miz It should. That was one of the original reasons it was developed for.