If you shoot football or soccer under stadium lights, you've probably seen it. One frame looks normal, the next has a magenta cast, and the one after that turns green. Same camera, same settings, all in the same second. Your camera isn't broken. It's the lights, and there are a few simple things you can do about it.

Watch it here, then keep reading for the short version.

When I planned out high school football, I told you to turn on your camera's anti-flicker setting. Then I forgot to turn it on for my Z6III. Every burst from that camera in this video was shot with it off, so you're seeing exactly what flicker does.

It's the Lights

Stadium lights look steady, but a lot of older ones get a little brighter, then a little dimmer, about 120 times every second. Their color shifts a little too. Your eyes blend all of that together. Your camera doesn't.

At sports shutter speeds, your shutter is open for a tiny slice of time. One frame lands when the light looks neutral. The next lands when it leans green. Another catches it leaning magenta. In one burst of linemen at the snap, seven frames in about a second, the players barely move but the color swings from green to warm yellow and back.

Your Burst Isn't the Problem

Shooting a burst doesn't cause this. It actually helps. Every frame lands on a different moment in the light, so more frames means more chances to catch one in good light. If one frame in a burst suddenly looks off, it's probably the lights, not something you did wrong.

What I Do

Keep the shutter speed you need. If you need 1/1000 or 1/1250 to stop football action, don't drop to 1/500 to even out the color. You'd trade a color problem for a blurry player. Color you can fix later. Blur you can't.

Shoot RAW. A RAW file holds much more information than a JPEG, so you have more room to correct a green or magenta shift.

Turn on anti-flicker. Many newer cameras can sense flickering light and time each shot for a steadier part of the cycle. On my Z9 and Z6III it's called Photo flicker reduction. On my D5 it's Flicker reduction. Canon and Sony usually call it anti-flicker. Skip High-frequency flicker reduction, though. It set my shutter to an odd number, and the first time I thought I'd broken my camera. Later the same night, I shot a burst on my D5 with Flicker reduction on, at an even faster 1/1600. It's a different camera, so not a perfect test, but the color barely moved.

Check it before kickoff. There's no good reason to turn it off, but it's one menu setting and easy to never look at. Learn from me on this one.

It's Mostly Tint, Not White Balance

White balance, measured in Kelvin, mostly moves color between cool blue and warm orange. A separate control called tint moves it between green and magenta. Most of what stadium lights do lands on that green and magenta line.

Here's the proof from my files. For four frames shot in the same second, auto white balance picked the exact same setting every time: 4150K with the tint at +60. Same white balance, same tint, four different colors. The light did that, not the camera.

No Anti-Flicker? Fix Each Frame on Its Own

If your camera doesn't have anti-flicker, or you forgot to turn it on, you can still get good color. Shoot bursts and pick the frame where the color looks best. Then fix each image by itself. I tried fixing one frame and copying the settings to the rest of the burst. It doesn't work, because every frame landed on a different moment in the light.

In Lightroom, click the white balance dropper on something that should be white, like a yard line or a referee's stripes, then nudge the tint slider until the grass looks right. If you shoot JPEG, you can still move tint. You just have less room before colors start to look off.

What would you do differently?

What kind of lights are at your home field: older lights, newer LEDs, or no idea? Have you tried a custom white balance under stadium lights, or found an editing trick that handles flicker better? Tell me what camera you shoot with too.

Leave it in the comments on the video. I read all of them.

Next episode, I'm showing how I set up my monopod for long lenses, and the small change that means I don't have to think about it all game.

Get out there and make beautiful images.