Why do LED lights flicker on camera and how to fix it

Have you ever seen LED lights flickering on your camera like it’s turning off and on quickly at regular intervals, but everything appears normal when seen through naked eyes? If you are, then there is no need to worry as it is quite usual for this to happen. And this becomes quite evident since the frame per second of the recording and the frequency of electricity does not match, and that is why you see LED lights flickering when recorded. This phenomenon is known as the ‘strobe effect.’

But why don’t we see LED lights flicker when seen through our eyes? That is because the flickering happens too quickly, meaning that the frequency of electricity changes in very short intervals, making flickering unnoticeable to human eyes.

Let us dive a little deeper to understand this phenomenon better. So, the LEDs operate on alternating current AC, and one cycle, i.e. 1Hz, is when an electron moves in and out, and the bulb turns off twice. So, the alternating current usually operates at 50Hz (60Hz in the US) throughout the globe, which means a LED bulb is turning off and on around 100 to 120 times. And it is so quick that humans cannot see this through their naked eyes. However, the camera clicks the picture of the light turning off and on during the cycle, thus showing the light flickering on the camera.
How to prevent LED flickering on the camera
Flickering is annoying, and most of us want to get rid of it while recording videos. First, you can try adjusting the shutter speed in the multiples of 50 or 60, i.e., 1/60, 1/120, etc. You can also try lowering the brightness of the light source or get far away from the source until the flickering stops. There is no permanent fix to it but you can try playing around with your camera or light source to minimize the flickering as much as possible.

Here is how you can change the fps on the webcam

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