I live on the East side of Washington State, and it's VERY flat here, and it gets very hot throughout the summer months. For years, I've been battling with soft, out-of-focus pictures, and I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. This video explains SO MUCH about why my photos might not be coming out as sharp as they should be. Thank you.
thats funny, yesterday i was saying to my wife that the thing i mostly keep in my head when shooting is not exposure neither composition and such (these pretty much come naturally at this point), but on how to minimize this damn blurr. I knew there was something up with the lens hood! thanks for this video, this is a very unspoken thing
Thank you for all your hard work and advice. I shoot mostly landscapes, and atmosphere/distance has always been an issue. Your additional focus on temperatures related to location and equipment makes me wonder how anyone ever gets a sharp image regardless of the subject. So much thought-provoking, excellent advice. Thank you!
1:49, in 2016 when we got -26°C (-14.8°F) and seen the mirage on the Chainbridge pillar next to the Frozen Danube! It was really strange to see it, will never forget!
Wow, how timely. My wife and I were in Yellowstone yesterday, we live close, (eat your heart out), and experienced this. Shooting from a turnout in the Lamar river canyon across the river to an Osprey nest. Pix soft - moved away from the car, not much better - moved off the asphalt, some better. Didn't think to remove the lens hood, but it was about 11 am with bright sun, cold river water, slight breeze and the nest was in the dead top of a lush green pine. We bailed and got some great pix of Pronghorn and a ratty red fox. Thanks for your tips, I learn much.
Thank you for this video. I was photographing a large ship from about a mile down a long river on a 30 deg. F day, and those were some of the softest shots I ever got with my 600mm lens. I thought my lens was acting up. Didn't think this was a problem in the cold, but it sure was...
I run into this issue of heat refraction here in Phoenix, Arizona and so I will go early in the morning during summer time before the open areas are ovens. To your point, there is no correction for this in post processing, and the auto focus system has a real hard time with heat refraction as well. When that start to happens here, it is a sign to head home and enjoy the A/C.
Yeah, this got me yesterday, 600 mm canon on a mud flat with temps in the 80 f range as soon as I took the first round of photos and previewed them, I knew I was in trouble. My issue is I keep clicking away, hoping I’ll get that One great shot. Back on Lightroom, I find 99% of the “nailed it “ photos are unusable. But still, I’m addicted and happily keep on clicking looking for the one!
Very nice topic i'm aware of it but you touched on others that i would of overlooked i am happy i subscribed to your site i am a photographer for more than thirty years and it only goes to show that we never stop learning thanks Mr Perry keep up the good work
I had quite a bit of heat refraction in my shots during the last soccer game I shot, and it was cold, like 4 C (39 F) but sunny. One additional tip is that you can also recognize that refraction is there by checking your bokeh pattern, it looks quite a bit different. I've also experienced the car case - shooting from a car into cold weather also pretty much guarantees the refraction softness.
Great thorough explanations that have been affecting me alot.. Always happens to me out on our local islands with waterfowl landing in various ponds mid day and land, such as floooding corn fields. Shooting out my back door or always shooting from my truck. I am aware of alot of what you shared, but some times there can be multiple problems that when you think you solved one the other gets me. I have often wanted to send my gear back to Canon, but I was thinking this problem you shared has to be it since I can get sharp images some times. But more soft than sharp normally. Thanks for giving me hope.
I was out 1 day where the clouds were passing over like zebra stripes, sun, clouds, sun... once the clouds would block the sun I would have to wait 5 minutes until the distortion started to lower and my images would get sharper and sharper, right as there was almost no distortion the sun would come back out! So frustrating, so that day I had only 2 minute intervals to take photos.
Done it a few times trying to capture ships here in the sound between Sweden and Denmark. Guess I need to know water and air temperature, or just go out in grey days. Excellent video!
I had heat refraction issues recently with a 4 degree Celsius morning and a warming sun running the ambient overall temps higher, cooler ground and warming air, nightmare
Hi Steve! In the astronomy world we suffer the same problem, except now the tube of air, say between us and the Moon is the whole thickness of the atmosphere including winds in the stratosphere moving at hundreds of miles an hour! We solve this by shooting movies and stacking the frames. The software then looks for the best frames and stacks only them improving your chances of getting the sharpest shot. This of course assumes the subject does not move. I wonder if anyone has tried this with a stationary animal.
I've played with it for noise reduction with a stationary animal. It's tricky but if you have enough frames it can knock the noise levels down. I haven't tried it with heat refraction, but I may have it give it a go :)
Bald Eagles are rare in my area, one day I spotted one across a pond near me and I fired away... no one single keeper, all images soft due to heat refraction.
Also, just plain atmosphere. The more atmosphere between your lens and the subject, under any conditions, the more sharpness suffers. This is why I am always skeptical of photographers who claim they use high megapixel cameras because it "allows" them to crop in on distant subjects. Sure, you got the pixels, but you also have the atmosphere! That's why I always tell them: high megapixel cameras are great for making huge prints, but as a substitute for doing the hard work of getting close, not so much.
100% accurate and I think the same thing when people are cropping the crap out of their photos. That's why I'm so anti-cropping or at least anti-heavy cropping (and I take a lot of heat for it).
Thank you for great tips as always. But I have a question. I shoot with Nikon d500 never had any of these issues. And then all of a sudden pictures are not as sharp and soft ish. I tried different lenses and same affect. I tried the lenses on my d850 and no problem. Any help is really appreciated.
At times when filming video my Nikon tries to continuously focus, in n out, in n out. This explains my struggle. Thank you. Would change in focal length in setup help?
I first noticed this effect when taking pictures of the moon which was positioned over a house...The results were a picture of the moon that looked like it was boiling. Session learned. What is your opinion on heated lens hoods ?? Thank you.
Most of the time I don't think heating the lens hood a little to keep dew at bay will make much of a difference. However, I don't really do any lens hood / lens heating so I'm just guessing,. :)
It seems more like a problem in cold weather since that's when we tend to have those bid temperature differences. The big problem with the opposite issue - cold lens in hot weather - is fogging. By the time the fogging stops, temps are close enough not to have lens-hood induced heat refraction. I have had people tell me they thought they've had issues if they were shooting in the sun and it was heating the hood but I can't say I've ever really had that issue - at least not that I'm aware of. Although, I'm usually not out at midday with the sun beating down on the hood :)
I was aware of the obvious heat refraction, but never considered all your other examples. I am new to long-lens photography and I am realizing just how much of a new skill this really is.
Once again, a wildlife photography subject that directly affects sports photographers. For us, the most common instances of heat refraction is on artificial turf fields. It gets so bad that anything above a 200mm is useless. For sports, we generally try to shoot from a low position, but with heat haze, we have to move a higher position. I agree, fixing in post is extremely difficult or nearly impossible. Topaz Photo AI will fix faces, but it can't satisfactorily fix the rest of the image.
You can easily check for heat diffractions if they're present by looking through the mirrorless viewfinder (or LCD) and then magnifying the image. If they're present, then the entire image will "dance" and "move around". If they're not too severe, there will be brief moments with "holes" in those heat waves, as they move through sort of like fog. You will see the photo get sharp all of a sudden, then go back to "dancing" again. In those moments it's possible to get a good, sharp photo. So the trick is to just take lots of photos and hope you get some at the right moment.
I first noticed the heat refraction problem while photographing a football game with my 500 f4 on a turf field. At first, I couldn't understand why my pictures weren't sharp. I thought it might have something to do with the autofocus system, so I tried manually focusing on a stationary subject with the same unacceptable results. It then dawned on me that I was dealing with heat refraction. The problem was that I wanted to deliver a good gallery of pictures from the game...but that wasn't really going to be possible. The best I could do was capture some decent images when the action got much closer to my position.
It's tricky to figure out at first, that's for sure. I think your experience is usually how it goes - mysteriously soft images and then working it out.
Been there, seen that! This is a great explanation of one of the most challenging problems to deal with. It's very well timed as well - it's the middle of spring here in the UK and I'm having major heat haze problems when the sun is up (which is rare, to be fair!). I've been on three consecutive shoots where I've come home and had to bin around three quarters of my images because of unexplained softness. I keep forgetting about heat haze, so I spent quite a long time blaming my equipment until I realised what was going on. Thanks for posting.
Hey Steve, great video, it's the most frustrating thing! Especially when you have slaved and saved for top end gear, come back with a CF card full blurry shots! 🤣 Have you ever done any testing with a polarized filter? I brought the Nikon drop in filter for the 800mm F6.3, obviously the stop of light loss isn't great but it seems to have quite a positive impact on heat haze if you get the angle set right. Sadly we have a never ending winter in UK at the moment so my testing time has been quite limited but hopefully (maybe) at some point we'll get some decent weather and I'll get out to test more.
Agree with you entirely. In fact i commented on it on a Topaz Gigapixel youtube about 2 months ago. An image can at first glance look OK but upscaling it will show heat distortion by magnifying it to be clearly observable and can make for some increadable shapes in distant buildings. As I am in Australia this is a constant problem. Often visible widely across the frame on an inland image, but on the coast it can be here and there in small samples in an image, particularly when there are buildings that attract heat interspersed with trees and greenery and an intermittent breeze coming off the sea. Noting the breeze drop where you take the photo from is no indication that it has dropped in the places chosen for the image, it is no guarantee it will be safe and clear. Temperature and breeze work in a mysterious way.
Heat refraction is a bitch for me I shoot winter sports and when using long glass like my Z600/4 TC I’ve had numerous photos ruined This happens most frequently when shooting on a sunny day
As a aviation photographer you're always confronted with heat haze, very difficult to avoid as airporst/runways are always open areas and every little sunbean can cause heat haze even at minus degrees.
Spot on, Steve, and ironic that you showed “shimmering cheetahs”. I had exactly that experience in Botswana last year with my first group of cheetah shots. I was excited like the proverbial kid in the candy shop when we finally laid eyes on a mother with her five cubs. However, the initial shots (distance, the open plain, time of day) were uniformly unusable. Fortunately, the evening and following morning brought lots of success. Same experience too for others in my group. Great tutorial, professor Perry. Thanks.
Yup - but magnified through a LOT more atmosphere! When it's low and red, you are shooting through more atmosphere than when it's up and it makes it far more difficult.
Another great, informative video, Steve. Thanks! Here's another tip to avoid heat refraction. If possible, shoot from an elevated position. This isn't always desirable, especially if you'd be shooting down on your subject. But when being above ground level won't compromise your artistic vision for a photo, shooting from an elevated deck or other elevated position can place you and your camera above the most disturbed air. This is why research telescopes are installed at least one floor above ground level in their enclosures. It places the optics above the most disturbed air and allows them to form better quality images.
Two other (perhaps more unusual for most) examples where this is a problem: 1. Photographing volcanic eruptions. If there's a flow of lava in the foreground, the resultant heat haze will make the entire photo way too fuzzy/soft. Only way to deal with that is to see if there's a (safe!) angle that avoids that. 2. Underwater photography in an area with hot/warm spring sources. The water in those areas will be massively blurry.
I really noticed that for the first time on my trip to Arizona last November especially trying to take pictures of Roadrunner or Burrowing Owl and i could see it in my 400mm lenses.
5 місяців тому
I've had this problem many times in the Kalahari. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not alone! 😂 Particularly difficult when I'm not allowed to leave the vehicle. Opening windows on both sides to accelerate the creation of an air temperature equilibrium may help, plus removing the lens hood. Certain times of the day may also be more prone to atmospheric aberrations.
finally explains my soft images of wildlife in the arctic several years ago! looked exactly like camera motion, but ruled that out by high shutter speed! thanks!
Totally Agree about how frustrating it is.. I have to shoot so many more photos just to get a few in focus in good air.. also my tell-tale on heat refraction is.. if nothing is in focus then it's absolutely heat refraction.. if something is in focus but not the subject then it's just a miss.. Great Video!
This is so relatable...suffered this last month...open field, middle of day, gray wagtail on a log...not a single image came out sharp due to the heat waves
Filters really don't make any difference. It's like shooting through dirty or "wavy" glass. Filter or no, the result is the same. I wish there were a way around it - if I could figure it, I could retire to my own private island :)
Anyway... congratulations, you've just won my 'Most Depressing Video of the Month Award with Oak Leaves and Diamante Pins'. You also got Five Bonus Points toward any possible future Award by smiling and being so chirpy throughout the delivery. I get this bad 'round my parts for some shooting... and until i worked it out it was a nightmare. Now it's merely another source of disappointment. Well done presentation - i'd like to thank you but i'll save it for when you bring Good News! Kind regards from New Zealand.
I take a lot of water shots because I love the ocean. I have been struggling with my 150-600 and this may be part of the issue. Thank you so much for this video.
Excellent! The dirty window analogy is on target. I had not considered the lens hood. I would have figured that since the heat diffraction occurs so close to the lens and not at all near where the focal point, as wells occurring in so thin a plane, it might not be that big of a deal. The dirty window analogy proves me wrong. Thanks, something to keep in mind. One "sort of" solution is to change your composition to a shot where sharpness isn't as critical. Zooming in on a lions eye at 300 yards may not be a good idea but a landscape shot showing the lion and some interesting landscape feature in the foreground or background may be the ticket. My pet peeve are lens reviews or user comments where they show an example of an "unsharp" lens where you can see the heat rising from the open ground.
Great video an it has shown me the problem is worse than I expected. I don't do any photography where the heat from the car could interfere except recently tried taking a photo of a sign without getting out of the car. It was not important or I would have been away from the car. Simply rolled down the window and focused on the sign at 70mm maybe 30 feet away. Using autofocus and it didn't look to be extremely sharp. I use single point. The shutter speed was certainly high enough and I thought maybe the eye adjustment was off. Took several photos. All were not sharp and obviously it was from heat. I was stunned and did not expect that!
I find most of the time with no wind it's wise. A wind of 10mph or more usually eliminates the heat shimmer. I see this almost always in places known for bad shimmer like Bombay Hook NWR where there are 3 large open area pools
Brilliant video Steve! Tips for another video I would love to see! Dust on lenses, on the front/back/sensor dust! How it affects us and how to deal with it! I was reading an interesting article that dust on the back of the lens is will show up in images more than on the front element. Would love to see a video on this topic from you.
Thank you for this. I knew about it, have been victim to it, but forgot it on my last trip...could not get that focus on the black bear's eye at the end of the meadow!
I had just learned about heat refraction and this video was very informative. I feel better that it may not be me or the lens that make my photos blurry but heat refraction and wind also! Thank you for the video.
I was shooting an airshow this past weekend on a hot day. The heat refraction/atmospheric distortion was awful. Your point about the animals in the trees is an important one. The further from the ground the less the problem. My jets that were closer to the ground had lots of sharpness issues but as I shot at higher altitudes my sharpness increased.
The level of quality and detail in your videos is unbelievable. We're so lucky to have such free content.
That lens hood example really hit me. I would have never expected this. Wow, thanks!
I live on the East side of Washington State, and it's VERY flat here, and it gets very hot throughout the summer months. For years, I've been battling with soft, out-of-focus pictures, and I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. This video explains SO MUCH about why my photos might not be coming out as sharp as they should be. Thank you.
Never taught of that one. Thank you so much. Also great quality of the illustrations.
You sure know how to dig deep! And you are right on the money!! Some of them I did not think of. Thanks! Always great videos!
thats funny, yesterday i was saying to my wife that the thing i mostly keep in my head when shooting is not exposure neither composition and such (these pretty much come naturally at this point), but on how to minimize this damn blurr. I knew there was something up with the lens hood! thanks for this video, this is a very unspoken thing
Man the getting straight to point is so respectful of everyone’s time. Packed videos as usual - super informative!
Thank you for all your hard work and advice. I shoot mostly landscapes, and atmosphere/distance has always been an issue. Your additional focus on temperatures related to location and equipment makes me wonder how anyone ever gets a sharp image regardless of the subject. So much thought-provoking, excellent advice. Thank you!
1:49, in 2016 when we got -26°C (-14.8°F) and seen the mirage on the Chainbridge pillar next to the Frozen Danube!
It was really strange to see it, will never forget!
LOL, we saw some mirages out on the Serengeti as we came back from our morning shoots! Weird stuff.
Wow, how timely. My wife and I were in Yellowstone yesterday, we live close, (eat your heart out), and experienced this. Shooting from a turnout in the Lamar river canyon across the river to an Osprey nest. Pix soft - moved away from the car, not much better - moved off the asphalt, some better. Didn't think to remove the lens hood, but it was about 11 am with bright sun, cold river water, slight breeze and the nest was in the dead top of a lush green pine. We bailed and got some great pix of Pronghorn and a ratty red fox. Thanks for your tips, I learn much.
LOL, I know that nest :)
I always learn from your videos Steve! Thank you! :)
Thank you for this video. I was photographing a large ship from about a mile down a long river on a 30 deg. F day, and those were some of the softest shots I ever got with my 600mm lens. I thought my lens was acting up. Didn't think this was a problem in the cold, but it sure was...
Many thanks Steve for these really useful tips. Off to South Africa shortly so this will be very useful!
I run into this issue of heat refraction here in Phoenix, Arizona and so I will go early in the morning during summer time before the open areas are ovens. To your point, there is no correction for this in post processing, and the auto focus system has a real hard time with heat refraction as well. When that start to happens here, it is a sign to head home and enjoy the A/C.
Yeah, this got me yesterday, 600 mm canon on a mud flat with temps in the 80 f range as soon as I took the first round of photos and previewed them, I knew I was in trouble. My issue is I keep clicking away, hoping I’ll get that One great shot. Back on Lightroom, I find 99% of the “nailed it “ photos are unusable. But still, I’m addicted and happily keep on clicking looking for the one!
Very nice topic i'm aware of it but you touched on others that i would of overlooked i am happy i subscribed to your site i am a photographer for more than thirty years and it only goes to show that we never stop learning thanks Mr Perry keep up the good work
Always sensible tips, Steve. I've been a fan for years, and appreciate your attention to detail!
I had quite a bit of heat refraction in my shots during the last soccer game I shot, and it was cold, like 4 C (39 F) but sunny. One additional tip is that you can also recognize that refraction is there by checking your bokeh pattern, it looks quite a bit different. I've also experienced the car case - shooting from a car into cold weather also pretty much guarantees the refraction softness.
Thanks Steve , Heat Refraction is also more commonly known as “Mirage “…! 🧐 cheers
Great thorough explanations that have been affecting me alot.. Always happens to me out on our local islands with waterfowl landing in various ponds mid day and land, such as floooding corn fields. Shooting out my back door or always shooting from my truck. I am aware of alot of what you shared, but some times there can be multiple problems that when you think you solved one the other gets me. I have often wanted to send my gear back to Canon, but I was thinking this problem you shared has to be it since I can get sharp images some times. But more soft than sharp normally. Thanks for giving me hope.
Excellent lesson. May I add something? The closer to the ground, the worse the effect.
Great as always! 👏👏👏👏
I was out 1 day where the clouds were passing over like zebra stripes, sun, clouds, sun... once the clouds would block the sun I would have to wait 5 minutes until the distortion started to lower and my images would get sharper and sharper, right as there was almost no distortion the sun would come back out! So frustrating, so that day I had only 2 minute intervals to take photos.
Your photographs are incredible!
8:06 This is good stuff!
Cheers Steve great video 👍
As always great video! Thanks Steve
Done it a few times trying to capture ships here in the sound between Sweden and Denmark. Guess I need to know water and air temperature, or just go out in grey days. Excellent video!
I had heat refraction issues recently with a 4 degree Celsius morning and a warming sun running the ambient overall temps higher, cooler ground and warming air, nightmare
Hi Steve! In the astronomy world we suffer the same problem, except now the tube of air, say between us and the Moon is the whole thickness of the atmosphere including winds in the stratosphere moving at hundreds of miles an hour! We solve this by shooting movies and stacking the frames. The software then looks for the best frames and stacks only them improving your chances of getting the sharpest shot. This of course assumes the subject does not move. I wonder if anyone has tried this with a stationary animal.
I've played with it for noise reduction with a stationary animal. It's tricky but if you have enough frames it can knock the noise levels down. I haven't tried it with heat refraction, but I may have it give it a go :)
Bald Eagles are rare in my area, one day I spotted one across a pond near me and I fired away... no one single keeper, all images soft due to heat refraction.
Refraction and humidity are the #1 reasons I hate to love soaring birds.
Excellent advice. Thanks!
I didn't know this about lens hoods.
This has even happened to me in a heated cathedral.
Also, just plain atmosphere. The more atmosphere between your lens and the subject, under any conditions, the more sharpness suffers. This is why I am always skeptical of photographers who claim they use high megapixel cameras because it "allows" them to crop in on distant subjects. Sure, you got the pixels, but you also have the atmosphere! That's why I always tell them: high megapixel cameras are great for making huge prints, but as a substitute for doing the hard work of getting close, not so much.
100% accurate and I think the same thing when people are cropping the crap out of their photos. That's why I'm so anti-cropping or at least anti-heavy cropping (and I take a lot of heat for it).
Thank you for great tips as always. But I have a question. I shoot with Nikon d500 never had any of these issues. And then all of a sudden pictures are not as sharp and soft ish. I tried different lenses and same affect. I tried the lenses on my d850 and no problem. Any help is really appreciated.
Steve. i am crying. you are my onley frend. MUCH LOVE!
At times when filming video my Nikon tries to continuously focus, in n out, in n out. This explains my struggle. Thank you. Would change in focal length in setup help?
Not really - unless you could get closer and that necessitated a shorter focal length.
I first noticed this effect when taking pictures of the moon which was positioned over a house...The results were a picture of the moon that looked like it was boiling. Session learned. What is your opinion on heated lens hoods ?? Thank you.
Most of the time I don't think heating the lens hood a little to keep dew at bay will make much of a difference. However, I don't really do any lens hood / lens heating so I'm just guessing,. :)
Here in the UK it's 99% overcast, but if we are lucky to get some sunlight it'll sure cause all that damp to rise 🥲
can a UV filter help? thank you for the video btw
Nope. The problem happens between you and the subject. Filters really don’t do any good.
I think its worse in the winter!
Does the lens hood effect the image in hot weather like in cold?
It seems more like a problem in cold weather since that's when we tend to have those bid temperature differences. The big problem with the opposite issue - cold lens in hot weather - is fogging. By the time the fogging stops, temps are close enough not to have lens-hood induced heat refraction. I have had people tell me they thought they've had issues if they were shooting in the sun and it was heating the hood but I can't say I've ever really had that issue - at least not that I'm aware of. Although, I'm usually not out at midday with the sun beating down on the hood :)
I live in Florida. Lol
The fact you are using a Real camera smells simple. Most now think their grease covered phone is a Million dollar camera.
Wondering how many private investigators are taking notes on these car / house / window tips 😆
The best wildlife photography channel by miles. Thank you very much for the tips!
I was aware of the obvious heat refraction, but never considered all your other examples. I am new to long-lens photography and I am realizing just how much of a new skill this really is.
Once again, a wildlife photography subject that directly affects sports photographers. For us, the most common instances of heat refraction is on artificial turf fields. It gets so bad that anything above a 200mm is useless. For sports, we generally try to shoot from a low position, but with heat haze, we have to move a higher position. I agree, fixing in post is extremely difficult or nearly impossible. Topaz Photo AI will fix faces, but it can't satisfactorily fix the rest of the image.
You can easily check for heat diffractions if they're present by looking through the mirrorless viewfinder (or LCD) and then magnifying the image. If they're present, then the entire image will "dance" and "move around". If they're not too severe, there will be brief moments with "holes" in those heat waves, as they move through sort of like fog. You will see the photo get sharp all of a sudden, then go back to "dancing" again. In those moments it's possible to get a good, sharp photo. So the trick is to just take lots of photos and hope you get some at the right moment.
That's great advice - I'll give it a try next time :)
The best scientific explanation which substantiates the theory of applied physics in photography.
Thanks Steve wonderful insight...I can relate to it.Have experienced it myself.
I first noticed the heat refraction problem while photographing a football game with my 500 f4 on a turf field. At first, I couldn't understand why my pictures weren't sharp. I thought it might have something to do with the autofocus system, so I tried manually focusing on a stationary subject with the same unacceptable results. It then dawned on me that I was dealing with heat refraction. The problem was that I wanted to deliver a good gallery of pictures from the game...but that wasn't really going to be possible. The best I could do was capture some decent images when the action got much closer to my position.
It's tricky to figure out at first, that's for sure. I think your experience is usually how it goes - mysteriously soft images and then working it out.
Experienced this at Yellowstone national park, very frustrating. Thank you for explaining.
Been there, seen that! This is a great explanation of one of the most challenging problems to deal with. It's very well timed as well - it's the middle of spring here in the UK and I'm having major heat haze problems when the sun is up (which is rare, to be fair!). I've been on three consecutive shoots where I've come home and had to bin around three quarters of my images because of unexplained softness. I keep forgetting about heat haze, so I spent quite a long time blaming my equipment until I realised what was going on. Thanks for posting.
Hey Steve, great video, it's the most frustrating thing! Especially when you have slaved and saved for top end gear, come back with a CF card full blurry shots! 🤣 Have you ever done any testing with a polarized filter? I brought the Nikon drop in filter for the 800mm F6.3, obviously the stop of light loss isn't great but it seems to have quite a positive impact on heat haze if you get the angle set right. Sadly we have a never ending winter in UK at the moment so my testing time has been quite limited but hopefully (maybe) at some point we'll get some decent weather and I'll get out to test more.
Agree with you entirely. In fact i commented on it on a Topaz Gigapixel youtube about 2 months ago. An image can at first glance look OK but upscaling it will show heat distortion by magnifying it to be clearly observable and can make for some increadable shapes in distant buildings. As I am in Australia this is a constant problem. Often visible widely across the frame on an inland image, but on the coast it can be here and there in small samples in an image, particularly when there are buildings that attract heat interspersed with trees and greenery and an intermittent breeze coming off the sea. Noting the breeze drop where you take the photo from is no indication that it has dropped in the places chosen for the image, it is no guarantee it will be safe and clear. Temperature and breeze work in a mysterious way.
Top notch video. I thought that I was doing something wrong. ❤❤❤ Thanks
Heat refraction is a bitch for me I shoot winter sports and when using long glass like my Z600/4 TC I’ve had numerous photos ruined
This happens most frequently when shooting on a sunny day
As a aviation photographer you're always confronted with heat haze, very difficult to avoid as airporst/runways are always open areas and every little sunbean can cause heat haze even at minus degrees.
Spot on, Steve, and ironic that you showed “shimmering cheetahs”. I had exactly that experience in Botswana last year with my first group of cheetah shots. I was excited like the proverbial kid in the candy shop when we finally laid eyes on a mother with her five cubs. However, the initial shots (distance, the open plain, time of day) were uniformly unusable. Fortunately, the evening and following morning brought lots of success. Same experience too for others in my group. Great tutorial, professor Perry. Thanks.
Very informative as usual! Well done again. 🙏
Great vid. Thanks.
I recently took my 800mm lens plane spotting and the haze led to me not getting a single sharp photo. It can be a real bummer!
Great info thanks.
Thanks great info 👍
I was "like" 666 😱
Yeah this isn't an issue in the UK. We have rain haze 😂
LOL
Is that why When the moon rises and it is red it's hard to get it sharp
Yup - but magnified through a LOT more atmosphere! When it's low and red, you are shooting through more atmosphere than when it's up and it makes it far more difficult.
Yup! Had a lot of this shooting over water on cold mornings just after sunrise recently!!
Another great, informative video, Steve. Thanks!
Here's another tip to avoid heat refraction. If possible, shoot from an elevated position. This isn't always desirable, especially if you'd be shooting down on your subject. But when being above ground level won't compromise your artistic vision for a photo, shooting from an elevated deck or other elevated position can place you and your camera above the most disturbed air.
This is why research telescopes are installed at least one floor above ground level in their enclosures. It places the optics above the most disturbed air and allows them to form better quality images.
Perry... I dream of heat refraction. I live in the UK!
LOL :)
Hey Steve can I use exposure compensation in manual mode with auto iso on the z8 ?
Yup, no problem.
Two other (perhaps more unusual for most) examples where this is a problem:
1. Photographing volcanic eruptions. If there's a flow of lava in the foreground, the resultant heat haze will make the entire photo way too fuzzy/soft. Only way to deal with that is to see if there's a (safe!) angle that avoids that.
2. Underwater photography in an area with hot/warm spring sources. The water in those areas will be massively blurry.
I really noticed that for the first time on my trip to Arizona last November especially trying to take pictures of Roadrunner or Burrowing Owl and i could see it in my 400mm lenses.
I've had this problem many times in the Kalahari. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not alone! 😂 Particularly difficult when I'm not allowed to leave the vehicle. Opening windows on both sides to accelerate the creation of an air temperature equilibrium may help, plus removing the lens hood. Certain times of the day may also be more prone to atmospheric aberrations.
finally explains my soft images of wildlife in the arctic several years ago! looked exactly like camera motion, but ruled that out by high shutter speed! thanks!
Totally Agree about how frustrating it is.. I have to shoot so many more photos just to get a few in focus in good air.. also my tell-tale on heat refraction is.. if nothing is in focus then it's absolutely heat refraction.. if something is in focus but not the subject then it's just a miss.. Great Video!
Great advice. Thank you!
Now we have AI ... 😉
Yeah, I don't think that's gonna help. :)
This is so relatable...suffered this last month...open field, middle of day, gray wagtail on a log...not a single image came out sharp due to the heat waves
Hallo Steve. What about heat refraction with a filter placed in front of the lens? Thank you.
Jan, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Filters really don't make any difference. It's like shooting through dirty or "wavy" glass. Filter or no, the result is the same. I wish there were a way around it - if I could figure it, I could retire to my own private island :)
@@backcountrygallery haha. thank you Steve.
We need to get rid of the heat. 😅
lol, just the sun :)
Thanks! Very helpful to understand heat fraction!
Anyway... congratulations, you've just won my 'Most Depressing Video of the Month Award with Oak Leaves and Diamante Pins'. You also got Five Bonus Points toward any possible future Award by smiling and being so chirpy throughout the delivery. I get this bad 'round my parts for some shooting... and until i worked it out it was a nightmare. Now it's merely another source of disappointment. Well done presentation - i'd like to thank you but i'll save it for when you bring Good News! Kind regards from New Zealand.
Great advice I've put into practice. Thanks. 👍👍
I take a lot of water shots because I love the ocean. I have been struggling with my 150-600 and this may be part of the issue. Thank you so much for this video.
Excellent! The dirty window analogy is on target. I had not considered the lens hood. I would have figured that since the heat diffraction occurs so close to the lens and not at all near where the focal point, as wells occurring in so thin a plane, it might not be that big of a deal. The dirty window analogy proves me wrong. Thanks, something to keep in mind.
One "sort of" solution is to change your composition to a shot where sharpness isn't as critical. Zooming in on a lions eye at 300 yards may not be a good idea but a landscape shot showing the lion and some interesting landscape feature in the foreground or background may be the ticket.
My pet peeve are lens reviews or user comments where they show an example of an "unsharp" lens where you can see the heat rising from the open ground.
nicely done. I experienced much of these issues of several safari outings in South Africa last week.
Great video an it has shown me the problem is worse than I expected. I don't do any photography where the heat from the car could interfere except recently tried taking a photo of a sign without getting out of the car. It was not important or I would have been away from the car. Simply rolled down the window and focused on the sign at 70mm maybe 30 feet away. Using autofocus and it didn't look to be extremely sharp. I use single point. The shutter speed was certainly high enough and I thought maybe the eye adjustment was off. Took several photos. All were not sharp and obviously it was from heat. I was stunned and did not expect that!
This is subject matter for an academic paper! Thank you for sharing your expertise, not just opinion!
I find most of the time with no wind it's wise. A wind of 10mph or more usually eliminates the heat shimmer. I see this almost always in places known for bad shimmer like Bombay Hook NWR where there are 3 large open area pools
Brilliant video Steve! Tips for another video I would love to see!
Dust on lenses, on the front/back/sensor dust! How it affects us and how to deal with it! I was reading an interesting article that dust on the back of the lens is will show up in images more than on the front element. Would love to see a video on this topic from you.
Thank you for this. I knew about it, have been victim to it, but forgot it on my last trip...could not get that focus on the black bear's eye at the end of the meadow!
Great. THank you very much.
I had just learned about heat refraction and this video was very informative. I feel better that it may not be me or the lens that make my photos blurry but heat refraction and wind also!
Thank you for the video.
Yes annoys me alot, maybe we should ban the Sun along with Ticktock 😂
Great information Steve! This situation is not high on the things I worry about when out shooting, bit it certainly should be. Thanks very much.
The best video I've seen thus far that really explains this! Great job Steve!
I was shooting an airshow this past weekend on a hot day. The heat refraction/atmospheric distortion was awful. Your point about the animals in the trees is an important one. The further from the ground the less the problem. My jets that were closer to the ground had lots of sharpness issues but as I shot at higher altitudes my sharpness increased.