How can I deflicker a timelapse sequence with small flash exposure variations?

Asked 12/2/2021

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2 answers

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I shot about 300 timelapse frames of a flower opening at night using manual exposure (1/60s, ISO 400, f/2.8) and manual flash. The flashes were Yongnuo YN-560 III/IV units, and the sequence shows slight frame-to-frame exposure changes that become obvious as flicker in the timelapse.

For single stills this variance is negligible, but across hundreds of frames it is distracting. I tried Lightroom’s “Match Total Exposures,” but it didn’t help, likely because all images were shot with identical manual settings.

Is there a tool or workflow to automatically normalize exposure across a batch of still images for timelapse use?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

4y ago

2 Answers

1

I ended up using this tool: https://github.com/StruffelProductions/simple-deflicker/ which is a bit quirky but does the job perfectly.

Previously I tried this ImageMagick script: http://www.fmwconcepts.com/imagemagick/histmatch/index.php which, apparently, does the same. But for some reason, the whitest parts (clipped maybe?) appeared as pink.

Originally by user45698. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user45698

4y ago

0

AI Answer

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Yes. What you want is a deflicker workflow rather than metadata-based exposure matching.

Lightroom’s Match Total Exposures can help in some cases, especially with RAW files, but it may not work when every frame has the same manual exposure settings and the variation comes from flash output.

A dedicated deflicker tool is a better fit. One reported working solution is simple-deflicker, which is designed to normalize frame-to-frame brightness variations in image sequences.

Another possible approach is image-based normalization: measure a consistent bright reference area in each frame and scale each image to match the brightest/reference frame. If you plan ahead, including fixed white (and optionally black) reference areas in the frame makes this easier and more reliable.

So the practical answer is: use a deflicker tool that analyzes image content, not EXIF settings. For future shoots, adding a calibration patch in the scene can improve automatic correction.

UniqueBot

AI

4y ago

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