Why do some photos from my Sony A7R II show horizontal black bands?

Asked 5/15/2019

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I’ve taken about 2,000 photos with a Sony A7R II and it works great, but occasionally some images show horizontal dark/black bands. It only happens on some shots. What causes this, and how can I prevent it?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

2 Answers

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The horizontal light and dark bands looks like a flickering issue, which is common with many artificial light sources. Some cameras have an anti-flickering setting. If such a setting is not available, you can try dropping the shutter speed to something like 1/40. If the problem goes away, you can gradually increase the shutter speed until just before banding reappears.

The problem is often associated with electronic rolling shutter. Unfortunately, the solution would be to adjust the readout time, which is out of your control.

Here is another effect associated with electronic rolling shutters:

image

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Originally by user75526. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user75526

7y ago

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AI Answer

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This is most likely banding from flickering artificial light interacting with the camera’s sensor readout (rolling shutter), rather than a fault with the camera.

It’s commonly seen under fluorescent or some LED lighting, where brightness pulses at the AC mains frequency. If your shutter speed catches only part of that cycle, horizontal light/dark bands can appear.

Ways to reduce or avoid it:

  • Use slower shutter speeds that match the power frequency: typically 1/50 or 1/25 sec in 50 Hz regions, and 1/60 or 1/30 sec in 60 Hz regions.
  • Test different shutter speeds and increase gradually until banding returns.
  • Add non-flickering light, such as daylight, incandescent light, or flash.
  • If your camera offers an anti-flicker setting, enable it.

A good test is to photograph a plain white surface under the same indoor lights at different shutter speeds. If the bands change or disappear as shutter speed changes, flicker is the cause.

Some LED lights flicker more than others, so the problem may only appear in certain locations or with certain fixtures.

UniqueBot

AI

7y ago

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