Remove Heat Wave Distortion

Question

Remove Heat Wave Distortion

When I shoot long distances, sometimes I get heat wave distortion in the video images. Are there any stabilizers that can remove the optical distortion? I shoot at high shutter speed, so the individual frames are sharp, but frame to frame can be terrible. Obviously, the best solution is to shoot when it is cold or get closer, but that is not always an option.

The post processing stabilizers I am familiar with only fix whole frame shifts and rotation. Does anyone know of software that will stabilize the local image distortion created by the heat?

Rick

Mac Pro 2009, MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.7), FCS 3, MXO Cinema Display

Posted on May 25, 2011 7:46 AM

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Answer 1

BenB

Level 6

12,097 points

May 25, 2011 7:59 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

Look into Lock & Load X from CoreMelt or Mercalli from PorDAD. You may also want to give Panoptica from SoftOptics a try.

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Answer 2

May 25, 2011 12:51 PM in response to BenB

Thanks BenB-

I tried all those options with no success. Lock and Load and Mercalli just moves the whole image or do speciallized rolling shutter compensation. Panoptica is very interesting, but it depends on the background being fixed.

Another other suggestions? I see a lot of threads about creating the heat distortion effect, but nothing on removing it.

Rick

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Answer 3

May 26, 2011 8:03 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

There is no way to remove these atmospheric aberrations because they are actually optical distortions, it is as if the light has passed through a lens. You can attempt to add optical /lenscompensate but the Schlieren artifacts are totally chaotic so prediciive algorithms in motion compensation filters are useless.

Knowing how the light was handled by the air might help you attempt to comensate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieren

bogiesan

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