DISCLAIIMER: I have no intention whatsoever to be harsh or aggressive towards people who are trying to learn. I do NOT mean to be professorial or arrogant, just to put things how they are and in the simplest possible way. I wish I had this kind of advice in the beginning of my career rather than being eaten alive by harsh and mean critics made by more experienced professionals (I don't know how things are in the US, but down here backstabbing and being an a***hole is quite common among professionals).
I have around 15 years of experience with professional photography and video and I've been seeing some comments about photo and video problems that are mostly based on personal taste or biased opinions rather than technical knowledge (not in this thread specifically). So, please allow me to give my two cents.
First of all, let me put this straight: if you want professional results, you MUST do stuff professionally, from the beginning to the end of the process. That means, first of all, learning the basic technical foundations of digital image capture. That can sound boring, disappointing or uninviting (be sure, there is a LOT to learn), but take your time. You said in the post that you want to be a working professional by the end of the next year. That's plenty of time to study and practice and there is a lot of online resources (some of them absolutely free), meaning you don't need to break the bank in order to become a professional. Also, you can practice most (if not all) of the basic principles at home with your camera (maybe even with your phone), without the need to go out and fly a drone. I will be more than pleased to point you at the right direction if you wish or need to.
Remember that "no brainers", despite their usefullness in some situations, always come with caveats, and "dumbing down" stuff will often give you (guess what?) dumbed down results. Once you learn the basics, and with enough practice, it will become second nature in no time. Believe me, is not rocket science. I am not a brilliant person, by all means, and I could make it. You can perfectly do so.
After all this boring introduction, allow me to address your problem. Firstly, most (but not all) flickering in video has nothing to do with resolution as some folks are pointing out. But let's talk resolution (and what seems to be flickering) a bit further on. In this particular case, the flickering on the sign reveals what seems to be an incompatibility between the shutter speed and the mains frequency. According to you, the shutter speed was 1/60 and the frame rate was 30 FPS, which is a bit puzzling for two reasons:
1) Even with ISO 100, this is quite a slow shutter and frame rate combination to use in a bright sunny day with a f/2.8 lens;
2) As far as I know, US electrical grid runs at 60 Hz, so the lights should not flicker at all, since it matches your shutter speed.
That being said, I would recommend that you double check the settings used, because the result in the video strongly suggests that either they where incorrectly set or that specific sign was being fed by a different frequency (other than 60 Hz) power supply. It is a very good practice to always check what kind of artificial lighting will be involved in your shots, so you can avoid flickering. Not all light bulbs flicker, but some do like fluorescent, compact fluorescent and, in certain cases, LEDs. So be aware of that when setting your shutter speed and frame rate.
Going a bit deeper in the problem now, let's dismantle, once and for all, the myth of doubled shutter speed. This is being taught (or, better said, carved in stone) as the one and only way to film. This arises from the lack of basic technical (and even historical) understanding of the
hows and
whys in cinematography. Since this is not the time and place to extensively and exhaustively discuss the matter, I will try to break down in the most simple way why it is used and why is it not mandatory (don't worry for I will provide some links for those who want to learn more): first and foremost, this relationship between shutter speed and frame rate is, indeed, the standard in film industry, where it is know as "180º rule" or "180º shutter rule". It was created to simulate, on screen, the way the human eye perceives movement in real life. But, besides being the standard, in some cases, this rule can be broken to make the image purposefully jarred in order to achieve specific objectives.
Now let's talk about resolution, its relationship with what might seem to be flickering and its usefulness.
Some repeating patterns may cause an interference in the image called
moiré or
moiré pattern. It is a complex effect that can depend upon the distance from the subject, how fine the pattern is, resolution, and even sensor construction. Basically, it happens when the aforementioned repeating patterns interfere with the sensor's pixel distribution pattern, resulting in a third pattern. It can be seen in TV, for example, when people use clothing with specific patterns like houndstooth, pied-de-poule or repeating lines. Under some circumstances, moiré can appear as a moving pattern, giving the impression that there's a flickering on the subject. It must be noted that, contrary to the popular belief, higher resolutions are not always the best way to mitigate moiré - it can make the problem even worse, depending on the case. Also, in some cases, moiré can't be avoided at all.
Still on resolution - and to end this already long reply - let me finish saying that more resolution is not always the best way to do good quality videos. It seems that every time a new resolution landmark becomes barely affordable to the general public, it becomes, automatically, the standard. It happened with FHD and it is happening now with 4K, although there are quite higher resolutions becoming comercially accessible. This comes with quite a large set of caveats, but I'd like to address the ones that, IMHO, are the most important:
- Equipment limitations: most low range and mid range cameras, like the ones used in 99% of the drones we fly, have limited frame rates when shooting in their higher resolutions. Most of them can't go beyond 30 FPS at 4K which, in some cases, is not enough. For example: if you need to create smooth slow motion shots, with low motion blur, you should start at 60 FPS at least, depending upon the situation.
- Processing power and storage: higher resolutions demand higher performance computers and more storage space. This talks not only to your pocket but also to your worflow and how fast your work can be delivered, since 4K videos takes considerably longer times to be imported, edited, rendered, and uploaded even with modern computers and connections.
- Final usage: most people still, as of today, do not have 4K capable devices at their homes or offices. So, the usefulness of shooting absolutely everything at this resolution is highly debatable, since it can be detrimental to the final work if you don't know what are you doing or have mutually excludent issues to deal with (like frame rate).
- Post processing issues: like said before, higher resolution footages are quite demanding in terms of computational performance. But there is a very important detail that most people fail to observe: monitor resolution. Unless you have a 4K monitor and use it to watch your footage full screen while you work on it, recording in 4K is controversial, since you will not be able to extract the most of your video.
I apologize for the very long reply, but I think it can help to shed a light on technical aspects and issues that some drone pilots, specially those who want to do it professionally, seem to be unaware of. Please feel free to get in touch if I can help with further information. Below there's a small list of helpful related articles:
Excellent article about the 180º rule. Personally I think this is one of easiest articles about it:
Shutter Speed, Frame Rate and the 180° Rule
Cinematographic shutter formula - Wikipedia:
Shutter speed - Wikipedia
Rotary disc shutter - Wikipedia (good to understand motion blur):
Rotary disc shutter - Wikipedia
Frame rate - Wikipedia:
Frame rate - Wikipedia
Cinematography - Wikipedia:
Cinematography - Wikipedia
Moiré pattern explained in a simple way:
What is Moiré and How it Can Ruin Your Photos
Moiré pattern - Wikipedia (a bit more complex and technical, but not overwhelming):
Moiré pattern - Wikipedia
YouTube's recommended encoding settings:
Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help
Understanding video bitrate:
Understanding bitrates in video files - Encoding.com Help
Guide on video bitrate:
Full Guide: What is Video Bitrate and Why Does it Matter? - ANIMOTICA Blog
