get rid of screen flicker on computer screen

Get Rid of Pesky Screen Flicker on a Computer Screen.

You are shooting a scene where there is a computer monitor in your frame and there is nothing you can do about it. It does not look good due to a perpetual flickering effect when viewed through your camera lens. Of course, we don’t see this screen flicker with the naked eye but as soon as you point your camera at it all is revealed.

There is a quick way to solve this issue without the need for visual effects, or any need to fix in post-production. I never knew about this before and I wish that I had.

The easiest solution is to turn off the computer screen in shot but that is not always an option, especially if the scene you are shooting requires a working computer screen to be in frame for some reason. You can play around with your in-camera settings but usually without much effect. Luckily, there’s an effective, quick and theoretically easy way to get rid of that pesky flicker. You will need to have access to the computer in question or obtain permission from the relevant person to do so.

If you can access the computer that’s in your shot, open the control panel, navigate to Display and in Screen Resolution you should see an option to change the refresh rate of the monitor (this may be in Advanced Settings). Change the refresh rate to 75 hertz. You should notice a significant reduction in the flicker of the monitor as you look through your viewfinder of your camera. This nifty little trick will come in handy if you have to shoot an on-the-fly piece set in any office space or classroom environment where there may be an annoying flickering computer screen in your perfectly framed shot.

In my case, it was a controlled environment with one computer screen in the shot. I tried changing the refresh rate of the computer monitor to 75 hertz and was pleased with the result: no flickering screen. It only takes less than a minute to change the setting and this saves you precious time in the edit suite instead of worrying about masking or replacing the computer screen with an After Effects composition. Glitch solved!

 

Has anyone else found this helps? Or maybe you have another quick fix for reducing screen flicker? If so, please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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