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Jack Banatoni
Participating Frequently
November 30, 2010
Answered

Shadow/Highlight flickering

  • November 30, 2010
  • 27 replies
  • 62648 views

When I use the shadow/highlight effect, my image flickers.  I'm using manual settings.  Someone suggested changing black clip to 0%, but that did not help.  Is there another way to use this effect without flicker?

Thanks,

JB

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Kevin-Monahan

      Hi Jack and others on this thread,

      It seems that if the Shadow/Highlight effect (and/or others in the "Adjust" category) are added to your clips or adjustment layers with the default setting, you can have the problem with flicker in both playback and output. Although some users have great tips on this thread, I would use these effects at your own risk.

      The design of the effects probably need to be redesigned or at least refined so that the default application of these effects do not cause the "flicker" issue in playback and exports. For that, please file a feature request: http://adobe.ly/feature_request

      Thanks,

      Kevin

      27 replies

      pabloa59875872
      pabloa59875872
      Participant
      January 14, 2018

      Hey! i m using Pro cs6 and got the same problem.

      I solved it removing any video clip in the timeline that was lying under the main clip in which i apply the effect. it got ride of the flickering.

      hih!

        C
        CraigGordonDMD
        Participant
        December 24, 2015

        For those of you that simply notice the "sky" in your clips flickering when using Shadow/Highlight Adjustment, make sure to manually set the Black Clip and/or White Clip from .01 (default for some reason) to 0. This will stop that annoying flicker throughout the entire clip. This simple fix has solved the problem every time for me, but I cant be sure it is a solid fix for every situation. I think the more your light and dark values are outside of 0 and 100, the more flickering you will get with shadow/highlight.

        Yes, the Lumetri Color Grading Tool works without problems BUT it is not as effective as Shadow/Highlight.

        Also; If you do a crossfade, with two shadow/hightlight adjusted clips, you get another type of flicker. Rendering without GPU acceleration will solve the problem. Go into Project/Project Settings/General and click software only. Save the file, close out, reopen. It works.

        The problem occurs when two clips that both have Shadow/Highlight adjusment with different values are crossfaded. You get these light dark bands of flickering in the crossfade. It looks horrible.

        Setting the clipping amounts to 0, as opposed to the default of .01 will help with the clip flickering, but NOT the crossfade flikering. It will not help

        Using Opacity keyframes as opposed to the Crossfade Video Transition Effect will not help.

        Rendering without GPU acceleration will solve the problem. Another way to solve the problem is to make INTER clips. Render the two clips seperately with all shadow/highlight effects, then replace the clips on your timeline with the rendered clips and THEN crossfade them.

          MobyTrix
          MobyTrix
          Known Participant
          September 27, 2016

          "make sure to manually set the Black Clip and/or White Clip from .01 (default for some reason) to 0" absolutely solved my problem as well.  Didn't need to adjust clips above/below, turn off GPU, or anything; only making sure these were set to full 0 fixed it.  Good catch!  This is going to save my project.

          rizrom
          rizrom
          Participant
          November 19, 2015

          Hi Jack/Everyone,

          I'm just starting out with Premier Pro and video editing in general so I apologize in advance if my reply is inappropriate.

          I know this thread has been going for quite a while now. I encountered the same flicker problems as everyone reported BUT in Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015 there is the 'Lumetri Color grading tool' which I'm finding quite useful & wonderful to do all kinds of stuff including shadow/highlight correction. Its quite Lightroom like (I have a photography editing background - but pretty much a newbie as far as Premier Pro/Video editing goes).

          You/Others may try use this tool to the same effect in case you have the Premier Pro CC 2015.

          Hope it helps.

          Rishabh.

          N
          nforzy
          Participant
          November 3, 2015

          Hi Jack,

          My editor encountered the same flickering problem with Shadow/Highlight. He used Auto settings.

          The flicker completely disappeared as soon as he disabled any clip in tracks BELOW the active one (ie. below the track where the clip with Shadow/Highlight effect was used).

          Though we don't know why that solved the issue, it did.

          Hope that helps.

          N

          CONVEY:
          CONVEY:
          Participant
          August 17, 2015

          I've produced a post on a different forum, comparing various shadow/highlight methods and alternatives:

          https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/968995

          Summary: Adobe please, please fix this, there isn't a direct alternative, even from 3rd-party vendors.

          Kevin-Monahan
          Community Manager
          Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          August 19, 2015

          Hi sqwarellc,

          I've produced a post on a different forum, comparing various shadow/highlight methods and alternatives:

          https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/968995

          Thanks (except for that crack about support. Geez, really?).

          Anyway, I would recommend that you file the pertinent findings you have in a bug report so that it will be read by our product manager and/or our product designer. You can file a separate feature request (same form) for any improvements you'd like to see with Lumetri Color workflow.

          Summary: Adobe please, please fix this, there isn't a direct alternative, even from 3rd-party vendors.

          If you want to direct "Adobe" to fix a bug, again, the bug report/feature request form is the best way to communicate with us for those items. Calling out "Hey Adobe" to us here won't help much. The forums are chiefly user to user based with sporadic participation from most Adobe employees. I try to monitor posts, but I am only one guy and can't get to everything all the time. Hope you get your fix in an upcoming version.

          Thank you,

          Kevin

          Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
          CONVEY:
          CONVEY:
          Participant
          August 20, 2015

          Hello, Kevin -

          Thank you for the reply.  Actually in my original post (on the other forum) I mentioned that I would be submitting all this to Adobe.  I'm working on writing up a summary of what other users have reported.  The flicker bug in Shadow/Highlight has been affecting a subset of users now for years.  I think it has something to do with interframe codecs (think AVCHD, H264, etc.) although others have reported similar problems with intraframe codecs.  I will submit as much detail as I can when I have the chance, although I think it's a fair bet that as far back as this bug goes (at least since CS6), others have submitted their own accounts by now.

          Regarding the comment on support people, well, some of my most favorite relatives work/worked for Adobe, although in different departments.

          N
          natalief28076859
          Participant
          May 3, 2015

          HEYYYY

          I think Ive found another solution, not sure if everyones already tired this and I might look a bit stupid but anyway...

          When applying the shadowing and highlighting effects MANUALLY, u'll see that just under the sliding tools there is an option that says

          'Blend with original' - and just increase that.

          For my work I was doing a lot of trippy fading and overlapping and layering (Video Art) and just doing this on each of my clips worked for me anyway.

          A
          Anonymous
          April 11, 2015

          UPDATE :

          Changing format doesn´t matter.  I tried all of them and problem was still there.

          cuz I really want to use this great plugin, I am still finding the way.   Even the LEVELS i recommended doesn´t work at all cases.

          But i found definitelly right answer.    Try to use SA COLOR FINESSE first,  let´s take a look on meters on LUMA WFM.

          On the LEVELS TAB  use black and white point and little increase highlight recovery   It removes shadows and higlight clipping / peaking, which is causing flickering / flashing of SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT effect.

          It is important to have whole footage normalized, sometimes, different picture making some  problems,  in this case, split clip and make a new track with different SA COLOR FINESSE setiings

          With dynamic videos, try to automatize color plugin, it can repair whole footage without splitting to other tracks

          100 %  working

          It is important to correct the levels, I mean clipping of footage. If it is balanced and repaired and normalized, than you can use second FX chain and use HIGHLIGHT/SHADOWS with no problems.

          Everything what is over causing problems.   So thanks this, now I am also sure my footage is correct and finally understanding some of main knowledge about picture

          koki

          Kevin-Monahan
          Community Manager
          Kevin-MonahanCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
          Community Manager
          March 24, 2015

          Hi Jack and others on this thread,

          It seems that if the Shadow/Highlight effect (and/or others in the "Adjust" category) are added to your clips or adjustment layers with the default setting, you can have the problem with flicker in both playback and output. Although some users have great tips on this thread, I would use these effects at your own risk.

          The design of the effects probably need to be redesigned or at least refined so that the default application of these effects do not cause the "flicker" issue in playback and exports. For that, please file a feature request: http://adobe.ly/feature_request

          Thanks,

          Kevin

          Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
            J
            Jonathan83746
            Participating Frequently
            April 12, 2015

            Hi Kevin-Monahan,

            Thank you for responding, but unless I am misunderstanding the terminology, I think its been discussed throughly in this thread that even when not using the "default application" of these filters (i.e. manually specifying the strength of the effect rather than the checkmark for "Auto Amounts" being the default setting), the flickering still persists: Re: Shadow/Highlight flickering

            Now, four years later, a similar issue is seen more generally within Premiere Pro, and you/Adobe are actively acknowledging that as a bug: Flickering footage in Premiere Pro CC 2014 but not in Premiere Pro CC 2013‌ Perhaps this a sign that the underlying issue brought up in this thread is also in fact a bug, and is now spreading?

            I am very confused and frustrated that as working professionals and paying customers, the solution we are given is that we should "use these effects at [our] own risk." This seems to imply we should not count on Adobe CC products to be stable, reliable products.

              A
              Anonymous
              March 17, 2015

              Hey Guys ...

              No solution worked for me, but I found another one, which is working.

              I am editing footage with window on the background,  people moving in front of camera, so window light is unstable.

              I always shot in FULL  manual mode.   I didn´t find alternative plugin to SHADOW/HIGLIGHTS, which is the best what I need, so I had to find the solution how to remove the FLICKering.

              Maybe it is not BUG ...  it is just Physic .....  I said .. maybe

              I guess ...  the amount of light is affecting  SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT plugin, so I decided to stabilize footage first.  I mean stabilize by LEVELS plugin.

              Here we GO :

              In the FX chain add LEVELS  plugin on the first position - Don´t tune anything on LEVELS, just let the picture go through with original look. It is stabilizing values, I guess, so picture is stable then.

              Second chain position add the SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT plugin.  Set manual mode, do what you need.    No flickering / flashing.  You can try to switch off LEVELS and  as you can see, it is flashing / flickering again.

              Hope it will help to someone.  .. 

              koki

              J
              Jonathan83746
              Participating Frequently
              February 26, 2015

              Ditto on seeing this issue, and being VERY frustrated by it.  Buggy software is not how I want to waste time.

              The flickering clip has is ProRes 422(LT) with Shadow/Highlight filters on it.  It was originally an H264 clip from DSLR, but I ran TimeWarp on it and exported it out of After Effects.  In Premiere, it has the S/H filters and Fade to White transitions on both sides of it and is flickering.

              Not cool at all, Adobe.  At least a partial refund for my CC this month would be fitting for this issue (assuming it doesn't persist another few years without a fix, in which case its worth switching platforms completely!!).

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