user2036: I have made some time-lapse footage of a flower blooming. It was taken inside, at night, with constant lighting. The pictures are great, but as footage, the exposure between frames is slightly inconsistent (probably beacuse one of the lights was fluorescent), resulting in a "filmic" flickering effect. The effect is actually quite cool (in an early 20th century kind of way), but I want to see what it would look like corrected.
I had assumed that it would be pretty quick and easy to correct this sort of thing in After Effects. I've tried using Auto Contrast, Auto Levels, and Auto Color (with and without temporal smoothing enabled), but they don't seem to correct the flicker at all.
What I want is to equalize the total amount of "light energy" (sum of pixels values) per frame, using an exposure adjustment. Anyone know how I would go about doing this (in After Effects or other software)?

user1890: The constant lighting you are referring to is not enough. Did you lock down the camera exposure? white balance? Focus? If any of these items are left in auto mode on your camera, your going to get some kind of uneven variance in light.
What kind of light are you using?
Since you are want a shallow depth of field and are achieving this with a short exposure the light source may be of interest as well.

user4627: You should try VirtualDUB with the MSU deflicker plug-in. It's totally free and work better than other software I've tried.
You don't have to tweak any settings, it's working directly.
It's available for Windows.

user2611: GBDeflicker plugin for after effects does the trick

user1909: The flickering you are talking about comes because you have chosen a too narrow aperture. Normally you can completely eliminate the flickering by choosing a wider aperture than f/8.
The reason is simple: The lenses are no longer controlled by a physical aperture ring. Today it's the camera's job to set the aperture, and if you choose a f-number higher than 8, the aperture has to move a lot in a short amount of time. This leads to an accuracy of maximum 96 %, thus resulting in 100-96=4, 4 in each direction: 4*2=8 %. This means that each picture can be up to 8 % different in exposure. (This percentage is of course dependent upon how good your camera and lenses are.)
But as you already have your footage shot you need to fix it on your computer. There aren't many programs to do this, in fact I couldn't find any, but a good one is Photoshop CSX Extended. The Extended version can work with video, thus making you able to correct each frame individually. But this leads to a lot of job!
Luckily for you there has been made an action for Photoshop CSX Extended to automate this process. (Think of it like a plugin for After Effects.) Just load your video and apply the action, and it will fix your footage completely!
The action is a part of a big action bundle called iNovaFX which only comes with this eBook: http://www.gmbooks.com/product/CS5.html. On this page you can see it in action!
I hope this will solve your flickering video! Have a good day!

2036: <p>I have made some time-lapse footage of a flower blooming. It was taken inside, at night, with constant lighting. The pictures are great, but as footage, the exposure between frames is slightly inconsistent (probably beacuse one of the lights was fluorescent), resulting in a "filmic" flickering effect. The effect is actually quite cool (in an early 20th century kind of way), but I want to see what it would look like corrected.</p>

<p>I had assumed that it would be pretty quick and easy to correct this sort of thing in After Effects. I've tried using Auto Contrast, Auto Levels, and Auto Color (with and without temporal smoothing enabled), but they don't seem to correct the flicker at all.</p>

<p>What I want is to equalize the total amount of "light energy" (sum of pixels values) per frame, using an exposure adjustment. Anyone know how I would go about doing this (in After Effects or other software)?</p>
 1890: <p>The constant lighting you are referring to is not enough. Did you lock down the camera exposure? white balance? Focus? If any of these items are left in auto mode on your camera, your going to get some kind of uneven variance in light.</p>

<p>What kind of light are you using?
Since you are want a shallow depth of field and are achieving this with a short exposure the light source may be of interest as well.</p>
 4627: <p>You should try VirtualDUB with the MSU deflicker plug-in. It's totally free and work better than other software I've tried.
You don't have to tweak any settings, it's working directly.
It's available for Windows.</p>
 2611: <p><a href="http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/products/productgbd.aspx" rel="nofollow">GBDeflicker</a> plugin for after effects does the trick</p>
 1909: <p>The flickering you are talking about comes because you have chosen a too narrow aperture. Normally you can completely eliminate the flickering by choosing a wider aperture than f/8.</p>

<p>The reason is simple: The lenses are no longer controlled by a physical aperture ring. Today it's the camera's job to set the aperture, and if you choose a f-number higher than 8, the aperture has to move a lot in a short amount of time. This leads to an accuracy of maximum 96 %, thus resulting in 100-96=4, 4 in each direction: 4*2=8 %. This means that each picture can be up to 8 % different in exposure. (This percentage is of course dependent upon how good your camera and lenses are.)</p>

<p>But as you already have your footage shot you need to fix it on your computer. There aren't many programs to do this, in fact I couldn't find any, but a good one is Photoshop CSX <strong>Extended</strong>. The Extended version can work with video, thus making you able to correct each frame individually. But this leads to a lot of job!</p>

<p>Luckily for you there has been made an action for Photoshop CSX Extended to automate this process. (Think of it like a plugin for After Effects.) Just load your video and apply the action, and it will fix your footage completely!</p>

<p>The action is a part of a big action bundle called iNovaFX which only comes with this eBook: <a href="http://www.gmbooks.com/product/CS5.html">http://www.gmbooks.com/product/CS5.html</a>. On <a href="http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/TimeLapseFlicker.html">this</a> page you can see it in action!</p>

<p>I hope this will solve your flickering video! Have a good day!</p>
