Okay so thanks all, 3 days getting my head around this bit the results are great here the full run down of my de-flickered time-lapses from my last shoot.
I thought I'd compile some of the advice that helped me get my head around this:
@classicbs: Maybe this workflow will help for you. I could get the best results till now:
1. Delete your old XMP-s (or save them somewhere as backup).
2a. In LR read in the metadatas for your sequence. Select all files on the library tab (ctrl + a) -> right click metadata -> read metadata.
2b. In LR set custom whitebalance for your files + crop for 16:9. Select all files on develope tab -> switch on autosync -> basic settings: wb custom + crop overlay: aspect 16:9. -> save metadatas (ctrl + s)
2c. In LR set 1 star for your keyframes + adjust the settings for them. Rightclick on the selected images -> set rating: 1 star (switch off autosync!) + filter for 1 star -> adjust the settings for the keyframe as you wish (don't touch the shadows, highlights, blacks, whites) -> save metadatas again.
3a. In BR select all files and right click -> purge cache for selections. Now you will see the settings, what you did in LR.
3b. In BR select all files and run David's awesome ramp multiple script (check all), wait till the process ends.
4a. Before you deflicker the sequence I suggest you to download the visionlog raw camera profile (read the installation guide) and apply it. This will help the deflicker script to work more properly.
5. In LR setup the visionlog raw profile for you sequence. Read in the metadatas for your full sequence (filters off) on the develope tab -> switch on autosync -> camera calibration, profile: visionlog -> save metadatas.
6a. In BR select all files and right click -> purge cache for selections. Now you will see very flat images.
6b. Run deflicker.
7. In LR read metadatas for your sequence and swicth back your camera profile to adobe standard -> save metadatas.
8. In BR select all files and right click -> purge cache for selections. Now you will see everywhere the final multi ramped deflickered sequence.
Maybe it's too long to read and every settings could be done in BR + ACR, but I like the LR's layout.
D-milligan's words of wisdom
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When you make a keyframe its like telling the script "don't touch this frame", it becomes the target for what frames around it to look like. By default the first frame and last frame are keyframes.
So, pick a couple a frames that represent important sections of your time lapse. Then simply adjust them (along with first and last frames) to look however you like. If you modified settings besides exposure, then first do a "ramp multiple" this will make all settings smoothly ramp from one keyframe to the next (if you change WB, make sure all frames are set to Custom WB). Then run the deflicker. It will adjust exposure, making all the frames smoothly transition from one keyframe to the next.
If you want to adjust exposure after the deflicker, you can use the "ramp" in additive mode. It should be easy to avoid that though. Simply make sure your keyframes look like what you want for you final output before running the deflicker.
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It's usually best to do these edits before deflickering in case they introduce any extra flicker themselves, the deflicker will help take care of it somewhat. (ACR has a lot of settings that are 'image adaptive' and they can have a different effect on different source material, causing flicker; the worst offenders are: clarity, highlights, shadows). Of course there are things that are not going to cause extra flicker (like WB, noise reduction, lens corrections), so it doesn't really matter when you do them.
Because of the image-adaptive nature of some of these settings, even the deflicker script won't be able to fully fix the flicker introduced because for example highlights, midtones, and shadows may be affected differently, and the deflicker can only match overall exposure. So you have to be careful when using these settings, there will be limits to the values you can "safely" use (without introducing too much additional flicker).
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The preview should show you the analysis area and it will highlight the percentile you selected.
Analysis size refers to how big the image is scaled down to before computing the histogram. The smaller you make it the faster the script but the histogram will be less accurate. (the reason for this setting is that the rescale operation is native and very fast, however computing the histogram is done in JavaScript which is very very slow, so rescaling the image down makes the histogram calculation much faster)
My Hint’s and tips.
If you’re not happy with the de-flicker of a particular section then an easy workflow is to just re-keyframe that section and only select the photos in the section you want to re-de-flicker so you don’t have to wait for the whole time-lapse to run again. Just remember to uncheck any previous keyframes you may have set so as to not affect the behaviour of the new keyframes in the section you are modifying. Otherwise you might experience some unwanted behaviour
If you want to ramp some other settings after the de-flicker then be sure to uncheck exposure in the Ramp Multiple check box otherwise it will mess up your de-flickering
When de-flickering, if you “select all” in Bridge be sure to uncheck the undoDatoa.jdon file otherwise it will hang the de-flickering and you’ll have to force quit bridge (at least I had to) and run it again
I found that often more than 3 passes were necessary before the script was happy so I just set it to 10 passes every time then let it run so I wouldn’t have to do it twice every time
Use the percentile measure to fine tune areas that aren’t de-flickering well by changing where the de-flickering occurs (but be careful as of you change one area another may get worse best to stick with the sky
