White-out Face?

N

nbstl68

Getting comfortable
Dec 15, 2015
1,400
322
I'm guessing this is not a new mystery to most but I'm brand new a few weeks into my first system...
So what's going on here and how can I fix it?
This is a snapshot of me walking up to my camera in the dark.

Across the room you can tell I'm a person but maybe not who I am...Mid way (maybe 10-15') I can tell it is me...Up at about from 10' to 0' the face whites out more as I get nearer.

Why does it do that and anything I can do about it?
This happens more or less on the ones I just set up outside too.

I want s system that will ID more than just a generic body; where I can say hey, that's Mr. X". But when you start to get close enough to come into detailed focus to be ID'd I get white out.

I checked and the camera does not have a setting for adjusting the IR output nor an option to just turn it off, which would be nice in some cases.

My setup:
(Sam'sClub system)
NVR:QT8516
Cameras:QTN8037B (3MP)
http://www.q-see.com.hk/files/QTN8037B .pdf

screenshot_1-6-2016 1-31-33 PM.jpg
 
Too much IR causes this. On a Hikvision camera, you adjust the Smart IR setting from the cameras web interface. See the attached example.

 
Thanks
The QSee tech support person told me IR was automatic and no ability to manually adjust or turn on\off?

Can I also assume, if that adjustment was available, when you reduce intensity to see facial features the camera would also then lose visibility further out?
 
nbstl68 said:
Thanks
The QSee tech support person told me IR was automatic and no ability to manually adjust or turn on\off?

Can I also assume, if that adjustment was available, when you reduce intensity to see facial features the camera would also then lose visibility further out?
Click to expand...

I notice that on my HikVision cameras. Overall, the scene becomes darker, so yes, further out loses visibility. You can see some of this in that YouTube example. But for me, I rather get facial features up close than the ability to see further out. If you need far distance, you may want a 12mm lens, but it would require external IR illumination at that distance.
 
The other option you have is to adjust the shutter speed. Objects further away in the image will become darker but you will be able to see the face in the nearground. The advantage of this method over tweaking the IR output is that you reduce motion blur in your images.
 
The technical term for that "white face" is "overexposed". That's when the camera is getting too much light from a particular area. Would either need to lower the power of the IR lights (if it's possible to do on your unit)....Otherwise, the exposure would need to be adjusted to have either a faster shutter speed or a more-closed aperture setting.
 
Thanks...I'm not finding options on my camera to adjust exposure or shutter speed or IR?
(I have a similar post about camera shutter adjustments in a LPR post jut a bit ago).
Is it possible my cameras do not have such options?

If so, I'm beginning to think the Sam's Q-See system may not be the way to go here...

Any thoughts or recommendations on that?

My setup:
(Sam'sClub system)
NVR:QT8516
Cameras:QTN8037B (3MP)
http://www.q-see.com.hk/files/QTN8037B .pdf
 
Stand further away from your camera. Problem fixed!

Post screenshots of the settings from when you login to the cameras directly using IE, not the NVR.
 
I'm using the Blue Iris software with my SriCam and if you are in live viewing mode and right click on the screen, you can go down to the PTZ control and find all kinds of adjustments available there including brightness, contrast, and shutter speed.
 
Even out your illumination by adding two IR illuminators flanking your camera to brighten up the sides of the scene. The camera is averaging the exposure and gain over the entire scene so your face is blown out when centered and up close to the camera's illuminators. Not enough dynamic range to handle the extremes plus your face is essentially catching all of the cone of light from the cam's IRs leaving nothing for the rest of the room. Sooo, more IR from two different flanking sources will help the distance shots plus not be blocked by your face when you approach the center of the frame up close. Adjusting the maximum slow shutter speed from, say, 1/30 to 1/120th will reduce the blown out effect of faces up close but hurt the scene most of the other times (grainy and crappy). With cheaper cams that have lower dynamic range and/or unadjusting IR features, you can compensate by adding additional illuminators strategically depending on the scene. Either two flanking the camera or sometimes outdoors one up high overshooting faces but lighting up background trees or whatever can help a lot.
 
Are there any good IR illuminator out there that do the invisible to the eye light range that would also work with most cameras?
Just adding illuminators would mean having a bunch of red glowing objects visible on my house which may freak out neighbors

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
 
just explain it to em, the ones invisible to your eye also do a very shitty job at illumination in return.. plus most cameras wont even see em if they can.

who cares if your neighbors are freaked out.
 
I added some Scotch Magic Tape over the IR's on one of my cameras. It helped soften and diffuse the lights.
 
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