Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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I have some light flickering issues with my two LED bulb desk lamps. They're not that cheap, but I still see a bit of a light flicker. Is it an ISO or F #? or shutter speed number? If so, what should I change them to so I can fix this problem?
Any help is appreciated.
I use a Canon T2i, and the regular 18-55 mm kit lens.
Have you ruled out all other possibilities like reflection off of light colored clothing, light spill from widows and other light sources etc...? and your have your camera on full manual? not A, P, S, or auto mode?
If so try reducing your iso and shutter speed to get a longer exposure and see if that helps smooth out the light from the bulbs.
also, have you tried with any other lights to make sure it's not the lens?
you could do a test shoot with the aperture wide open to rule out lens inconstancy.
I shoot at night, and it's a possibility that my LEDs are just cheap. They were both around $10 at Lowes 
But Ill turn my ISO and shutter down to see if it does any better. My camera should be on Manual mode right?
Yes always animate in manual if possible, my earlier videos had all kinds of light flicker because I shot in auto mode under natural light, but since I have switched to manual mode and controlled lighting I have reduced the amount of light flicker in my film significantly. Most of the flicker in my animations now comes from reflections and shadows caused by my movements.
Other people will probably be better at telling you how to get rid of flicker caused by mechanical inconstancy and your own movements.
I'll see if it gets better, if not I might just have to get new LED bulbs.
Just going to point out that even though your camera is set to full manual, it's still possible for the white balance and obviously the focus to be on automatic. Just hit the white balance button, which, on the T2i, is the top on the arrow keys, and is labelled "WB", and slide that over to a white balance of your liking. I use fluorescent, but you can really do whatever, as long as it's not manual.
Also, you probably know that, but make sure the little switch on your lens is set to MF (manual focus) rather than AF (auto focus).
Using the kit lens might be the issue. Manual lenses are the best for brickfilming so you might want to invest in a cheap one.
For a quick test to see if the light is flickering,
In a place that is completely dark except for the light you want to test, wave your hand back and forth rapidly in front of the bulb, If you see one continuous blurred hand, then your lights are probably not the problem. If you see a lot if individual strobed images, then the light does have a flicker issue.
Yes, do make sure your camera is set to manual mode and you have the white balance and exposures both locked down.
It's been reported that the kit lens that comes with the T2i sometimes causes light flicker. It apparently has to do with the digital aperture not closing back to just the right size after each exposure, thus resulting in more/less light coming into the lens shot-for-shot.
I would recommend looking into a set of manual lenses, they could help to root out the flicker problem. I'll point you in the direction of this handy dandy DSLR lens thread which has a lot of really helpful information about selecting lenses to use and where to purchase them.
I'll have to check those lenses out. The kit lens may be the problem. I read in that post that the 50mm was just useless? Can I get an explanation why?
if your referring to this
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (Nifty Fifty) Poor choice for stop motion, mostly useless It has a really long minimum focal distance, this would be great for live action video as it is fast and cheap. Anything it can do in stop motion the 55mm Micro can do better.
What it means is that with this particular lens you have to be quite far away from your subject to be able to focus on it.
Most stop motion is filmed at close range (due to space restrictions and the desire to get as much magnification as possible)
therefor a lens with a long minimum focal distance is not the lens of choice simply because to get your subject in focus, you have to be too far away.
Oh okay I understand now.
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