Long lenses and heat distortion

[jeffnles1]

I recently shot a private concert, shooting over a crowd of about 50 seated people at 200mm f2.8, 1/200s. The two best shots of the lead performer came out slightly blurry. I was beside myself since the performers on stage formed a unique combination..

In desperation, I ran the images through Topaz Photo AI and it cleaned them up perfectly. I am not sure what caused the blurriness: missed focus, motion blur or heat distortion.

Still, has anyone found one of these recent AI programs useful for known atmospheric distortion correction?

The reasons for blurry images would most likely be a combination of multiple factors you mentioned.

I ran a couple images from last winter where I was shooting snow geese over a field on a bright sunny but very cold day. First, horrible conditions for photography but it was what I had to work with.

I ran them through Topaz and while there may have been some incremental gains, the results were not spectacular. A couple were usable but not "cover shot" quality.
Jeff

 

[bleirer]

Because you might get a shot where the air is less distorted. Look up lucky imaging

I'm thinking it's the same air. Lucky shooting I usually think of relative to camera shake. Something about a Poisson distribution, but I don't think the air is varying like that. But if you've experienced it helping there is nothing like experience.

 

[Cameron T]

I'm thinking it's the same air. Lucky shooting I usually think of relative to camera shake. Something about a Poisson distribution, but I don't think the air is varying like that. But if you've experienced it helping there is nothing like experience.

Lucky imaging - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[John Woodworth]

I'm thinking it's the same air. Lucky shooting I usually think of relative to camera shake. Something about a Poisson distribution, but I don't think the air is varying like that. But if you've experienced it helping there is nothing like experience.

Yes. It's more like someone is juggling a bunch of lenses of various sizes and focal lengths in line with your optical path.

 

[bleirer]

Lucky imaging - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Interesting information.

 

[tigger4t]

I've shot from a hide over water many times on hot days (28 degrees is hot for the UK) in the past few years and have never been caught out with heat distortion as there were always some crisp shots in a burst taken with my D850 + Sigma 500mm f4.

Today however, with similar heat and shooting from the same hide but with my new Z8 I have not got a crisp shot on the card. Could this all be just heat distortion or possibly something to do with the Sigma Optical Stabilisation or some other incompatibility ? On the D850 I had a bit of focus adjustment dialled in after calibrating it in Focal as it was slightly front focussing but my understanding is that focus adjustment isn't needed on Z bodies.

This possibly the worst collection of shots (in focus terms) that I have taken in the last 4 years -

 

[SCoombs]

I've shot from a hide over water many times on hot days (28 degrees is hot for the UK) in the past few years and have never been caught out with heat distortion as there were always some crisp shots in a burst taken with my D850 + Sigma 500mm f4.

Today however, with similar heat and shooting from the same hide but with my new Z8 I have not got a crisp shot on the card. Could this all be just heat distortion or possibly something to do with the Sigma Optical Stabilisation or some other incompatibility ? On the D850 I had a bit of focus adjustment dialled in after calibrating it in Focal as it was slightly front focussing but my understanding is that focus adjustment isn't needed on Z bodies.

This possibly the worst collection of shots (in focus terms) that I have taken in the last 4 years -

Before saying anything else, it's worth asking whether or not you had done any fine tuning on the Sigma lens with the Sigma USB dock. If so, that tuning is probably still in effect and could be interfering with the focus on the Z8.

 

[tigger4t]

Before saying anything else, it's worth asking whether or not you had done any fine tuning on the Sigma lens with the Sigma USB dock. If so, that tuning is probably still in effect and could be interfering with the focus on the Z8.

No, I've never changed the lens calibration using the Sigma Dock. Only in-body calibration on my D850

 

[Woody Meristem]

Is this the situation that things simply don’t work? I thought the rocks and the shallow water would have the same temperature so heat distortion shouldn’t be a problem but apparently it was. Please tell me I’m not the only one running into this.

It's almost certain that the rocks and the water were not the same temperature; in bright sunlight stone can get hot enough to produce second degree burns on your skin, water might get pretty warm, but not that hot. The temperature differential between the air rising over the rocks and the air over the water would cause major distortion in the photos.