# Weird horizontal bars when taking photos with T5's and pro mode



## x0769 (Mar 17, 2014)

I've seen this when taking videos. I had to use a faster shutter speed so that I don't see the bands in the video. I think it happens because the frequency of the light source does not match the screen's refresh rate.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

x0769 said:


> I've seen this when taking videos. I had to use a faster shutter speed so that I don't see the bands in the video. I think it happens because the frequency of the light source does not match the screen's refresh rate.


That could be the case. I've tried with 1/500 and 1/350 shutter speeds and run in to the same problem. I'll have to try with a much slower/faster shutter speed and see what happens. The real difficulty is that significantly increasing shutter speed means I have to boost ISO to the point it gets grainy.


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## EmotionalFescue (Jun 24, 2020)

this happens with my mirrorless cameras in electronic shutter mode. electronic shutters (like what's used in phones and in contrast with mechanical shutters) operate by limiting the exposure to a 'strip' of the sensor. that strip 'wipes' across the face of the sensor. so, the 'shutter' speed is dictated by the width of the strip and the speed it wipes across the sensor. that means that you don't have the entire sensor exposed at once, and that causes serious weirdness with certain subjects, including certain kinds of lights (i've noticed this photographing led christmas lights, for example).

in a real camera, you can avoid it by switching to the mechanical shutter. there the shutter speed means something different: the amount of time the entire sensor is exposed to light. in a phone you don't have that option though... so shifting your shutter speed up or down might get you out of the danger zone.

EDIT: i just wanted to also point out that the bars you're seeing are artifacts of the wiping strip i was talking about. where you see the dark bar, the light was not emitting - it's only reflected in the portion of the frame the strip was at when the light blinked out. the lights just blink in and out at a high enough rate that we can't sense them with our eyes.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

EmotionalFescue said:


> this happens with my mirrorless cameras in electronic shutter mode. electronic shutters (like what's used in phones and in contrast with mechanical shutters) operate by limiting the exposure to a 'strip' of the sensor. that strip 'wipes' across the face of the sensor. so, the 'shutter' speed is dictated by the width of the strip and the speed it wipes across the sensor. that means that you don't have the entire sensor exposed at once, and that causes serious weirdness with certain subjects, including certain kinds of lights (i've noticed this photographing led christmas lights, for example).
> 
> in a real camera, you can avoid it by switching to the mechanical shutter. there the shutter speed means something different: the amount of time the entire sensor is exposed to light. in a phone you don't have that option though... so shifting your shutter speed up or down might get you out of the danger zone.
> 
> EDIT: i just wanted to also point out that the bars you're seeing are artifacts of the wiping strip i was talking about. where you see the dark bar, the light was not emitting - it's only reflected in the portion of the frame the strip was at when the light blinked out. the lights just blink in and out at a high enough rate that we can't sense them with our eyes.


Huh. So theoretically if I match the "shutter speed" to the refresh rate of the bulbs (whatever that is) I shouldn't get that horizontal line then. That's pretty limiting in the quality of photos I can take with my phone then-- essentially the shutter speed is locked in


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## Thenoob (Jan 15, 2014)

EmotionalFescue said:


> the lights just blink in and out at a high enough rate that we can't sense them with our eyes.


Even if our eyes can't see it our brains can! For me flourescents are sure fire way to get a massive headache and end up in haze.



Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Around 1/125 shutter speed the horizontal lines disappeared. Thanks for the suggestions!









Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk


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## TexBrolo (8 mo ago)

If you are using flash with a shutter speed over 200 you'll get that dark band. You'll have to shoot most at 200 unless you have a hi-speed sync flash.


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## ddiomede (Feb 21, 2011)

Glad you got the issue resolved. If you want to match the coloration to as close to what your eye sees as possible, a white balance card works wonders. I used to photograph corals I was trading or selling and the biggest issue with reef tanks is they're heavily weighted in the blue spectrum, which looks like crap in photos, especially with LED lighting. The one way around that was taking a waterproof white balance card and white balancing the photos off that card. It was the only way I could accurately represent what the corals actually looked like in person. 

I noticed you mentioned that you're using a phone so I'm not sure what options would be available as far as white balancing goes. Usually I applied the white balance adjustment to a group of images when I was processing the RAW files.


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