Travelbugraphy

I butchered this photo so bad

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travelbugraphy

Have you ever taken a shot that you thought was perfect, only to realize later that it turned out poorly? Well, this is one of those moments.

Backstory

I was on a photo walk in a wet market, and typically, I take a shot and check the playback before moving on. The lighting in this butcher shop seemed fine, so I continued shooting.

I stopped at a stall and captured a beautiful smile, but the fluorescent tube lights caused some flickering. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the playback since. Take a look at those lines appearing in the image.

What went wrong?

The banding issue occurs due to high-frequency flickering from artificial lights. Fluorescent and LED lights, as well as signage, can flicker 100 to 120 times per second, causing brightness fluctuations. This is tied to the power grid frequency, which operates at either 50 or 60 hertz.

When I enable silent shooting on my mirrorless camera, the electronic shutter activates. This shutter consists of front and rear curtains that move from top to bottom, exposing the sensor line by line. If the flickering cycle is faster than the shutter speed, banding becomes visible on the monitor due to uneven exposure.

The Solution

Adjust the Shutter Speed: Set it to a factor of 50 or 60 to match the flicker cycle (e.g., 1/25, 1/50, 1/100). I recommend setting it to 1/50 sec to capture one complete cycle.

If I had noticed this in the field, I would have switched off the electronic shutter. Here’s a comparison of electronic versus mechanical shutter.

Now, sitting at home, I’m wondering how to salvage the photo. Thankfully, I have Photoshop! Using the classic dodge and burn technique, along with AI generative fill, I was able to improve it. If I hadn’t shown you the original, you might not have even noticed the lines.

Here is another one. I tried to revisit the store recently, but the person was different, and the vibe was off. A great moment of the owner chatting with a customer—he looked so relaxed and happy. It was too good not to save!