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Cityscape flicker problem day to night help!

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#1 ShutterTendy
[size=small][font=Helvetica Neue]I have a problem with flicker in my day to night sequence.  It is a fairly simple sequence that I shot in A mode, I deflickered in LRT which did remove some (but not all?) of the flicker in the sky and such, but for some reason when the building lights come on at night they flicker in a pulsing manner.  I have drawn the reference area to be the top half of the frame ( to include just the skyline and sky) and have done 10 passes of deflicker.  Really at a loss as to what could be the problem,  I have reprocessed the entire timelapse as well with no luck.  Attached is the link to the video, as well as my develop settings in LR (which I think are well within reason of normal).  Appreciate any help, thank you![/font][/size]

[size=small][font=Helvetica Neue]https://youtu.be/perly5WSwcg[/font][/size]

[size=small][font=Helvetica Neue]     [/font][/size]
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#2 Gunther
I guess this is a typical problem of Lightroom introducing contrast flicker. You have very strong changes in brightness in the bottom part, because of the car lamps coming in and out.
With the short exposure times that you used, they are changing heavily from frame to frame.
Lightroom tries to compensate that and you don't get the smooth appearance in the upper part, that you would like.

Setting the reference area to the sky is the way to go, but you cannot remove contrast flicker, only brightness flicker.
Try making the edits in LR even flatter - this is a very special case.

Next time try to use longer exposures to blur the lights more - a medium ND filter could have helped a lot and would have made the sequence even more appealing visually too.
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#3 ShutterTendy
Hi Gunther, thank you for the reply and advice!  I did re-edit the sequence with virtually no adjustments other than WB and small tone curve.  This definitely helped but the effect is still present.  I specifically did not throw on an ND filter as I wanted to keep the cars somewhat sharp before dark, but maybe I will have to resort to that in the future.  Thanks again for your help!

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