Uncontrolled Strobes & Tearing

It is not uncommon for filmmakers to encounter scenes with flashing lights and strobes, such as a crime scene with emergency vehicles or the inside of a night club.  These uncontrolled lights used to be of no concern, but with digital cameras they have become a very big issue.  When bright flashes of light are captured by a digital camera, it is very likely that one or more frames will not be entirely illuminated, and the light across the scene will appear to be "torn".  This is a result of the camera's rolling shutter.

RED ONE Strobe Test - Camera 180 Still.jpg

Digital cameras require a small amount of time to read data from the sensor and the sensor is typically read one line at a time.  The time it takes to read the sensor varies between makes and models of cameras, but most of them take more time than a strobe flash does.  Therefore, if a light flashes while the sensor is being read, only part of the frame will be illuminated.

RED ONE Strobe Test - Tessive 180 Still.jpg

The solution to this issue is to use a global shutter.  By inherit design the Tessive Time Filter does just this.  It is capable of implementing a standard 180-degree square-wave shutter.  This helps to eliminate the tearing effect and allows the "look" of the footage to match that of other footage that has been shot with a standard shutter.

RED ONE Strobe Test - Tessive B Still.jpg

The Tessive B shutter combines the advantages of a global shutter with the motion smoothing and aliasing reduction that the Time Filter is known for.