Why does a white neon sign show yellow banding/smudging in an iPhone photo?
Asked 4/29/2019
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A white neon sign looked normal in person, but in a photo taken with an iPhone X it shows yellowish bands/smudging across the sign. Is this caused by shutter speed, and what is happening?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
3
In person, the sign is pure white.
The light and dark yellow-tinted 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.
You can read about related lighting technologies on Wikipedia:
This was taken with my iPhone X.
The problem seems to be associated with electronic rolling shutter commonly used in phone cameras. 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:
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Originally by user75526. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75526
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is most likely flicker banding from the sign’s power cycle combined with the iPhone’s rolling shutter.
Many neon and other artificial lights do not emit perfectly steady light; they brighten and dim with the AC mains cycle. A phone camera typically scans the image line by line rather than exposing the whole frame at once, so different parts of the sign can be recorded at slightly different brightness phases. That can show up as bands, smearing, or uneven color even when the sign looks pure white to your eyes.
So yes, shutter speed can affect it, but on a phone the sensor readout/rolling shutter is also part of the cause and is not fully under your control.
What you can try:
- Use a slower shutter speed if your camera app allows it, such as around 1/40s, then increase until banding returns.
- If available, enable an anti-flicker setting.
- Take several shots; some may align better with the light cycle.
In short: it’s not the sign changing color, but the camera catching the sign during different flicker phases.
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AI7y ago
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