Facial features in night mode

[TechBill]

Is there a way or trick improving facial features in night mode? Or is that one of the downside using infrared leds?

Facial seem to be glowing in the dark masking their features and I tried lower the contract and brightness but it didn't seem to help much.

Bill

 

[vector18]

What camera are you using? Does it have 3d noise filter or noise reduction? You can also try to add more natural lighting and turn off the IR's and put the camera in b&W mode only.

 

[TechBill]

It the Sharx SCNC3905.

I contacted the support and they got back with me suggesting making adjustment only to the Auto Exposure Target but not sure if to increase or decrease it. Right now it at a default at 60.

They also advised using IR illuminators will help too and check to see if disabling moonlight mode will help if I have street lights but I have none and my driveway is in a total darkness.

I will try some of those adjustment and see if it helps any

Bill

 

[TechBill]

Disabling moonlight mode seem what fixes it but the view darker with it off, so look like I will either need to add a street light or IR illuminator before I can disable the moonlight mode.

Bill

 

[bp2008]

This is a very common problem with night vision cameras. Everyone wants to see as much as possible at night so they use long exposure times that brighten up the whole image. Then when a person enters the scene, their face reflects infrared light too strongly compared to the surroundings, causing the face to be overexposed and too bright in the video. And often due to the long exposure the face will also be blurred as it moves. The simplest solution is to reduce the exposure time until the face is clear. Moonlight mode is probably controlling the exposure this way.

If clearer facial recognition is the primary goal, you just have to live with the fact that the rest of the scene is darker than you would prefer. You can help the situation somewhat with extra lighting though. Ideally with wide angle lights that cover the entire field of view, with an emphasis on spreading out the light and not having it all focused on the center of the camera view.

 

[TechBill]

After talking with support, I learned that moonlight mode adds up the light from 4 consecutive frames so that it can have a picture that’s 4 times as bright. So disabling moonlight mode will make picture darker and I will need to compensate for loss light either using IR Illuminator or street light to stop the facial blur when it in motion.

I been looking over street light that uses LED for whiter color and to save cost on electricity. Something like this

- http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Outdoor-Security-Light-Utility/dp/B00KVI3RME/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1421716333&sr=8-6&keywords=led+street+light

- http://www.amazon.com/All-Pro-AL2050LPCBZ-Security-Replaceable-Control/dp/B00DJPMD4Y/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1421716333&sr=8-8&keywords=led+street+light

Any of you have experience using LED street lights? Or should I stick with IR and get a IR illuminator to compensate for the lost lights?

I am aware that if I use IR mean I will be limit to one color only while street lights allow color but how much more visible does IR offer over a street light or is it the same without moonlight mode?

Thank you for your feedback!

Bill

 

[dmiller]

If clearer facial recognition is the primary goal, you just have to live with the fact that the rest of the scene is darker than you would prefer.

Yep. If job one is to ID the perp, the system needs to be setup for that purpose. Plenty of homeowners have proudly given their security video to the police who are silently wondering what they are suppose to do with images of unrecognizable criminals.

After talking with support, I learned that moonlight mode adds up the light from 4 consecutive frames so that it can have a picture that’s 4 times as bright.

That may make for a better looking scene, but likely blurs moving object. LED lighting is really good now, and diffuse light would probably help a lot.