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A while ago I was photographing some people surfing. I looked at some previews and was a bit puzzled: all the shots were suffering from extremely low contrast, and seemed generally out of focus.

Here's a typical shot (unedited camera jpeg): photo

Close up: closeup

At this point I was wondering if my lens was broken, so I checked. Of course, the lens was completely covered in water droplets.

The shots got much better after cleaning, but just after 30s it was completely covered again.

I tried to use a hood, but it only made the whole thing more painful because I had to remove it every time to properly clean the filter.

I tried to move further away, but I was already pushing the limits of the focal length (70-300 lens, this photo is at 300mm).

Is there any technique for this kind of situation? Some sort of motorized lens wiper I could buy? :) Or would I just need a lens with a much larger focal length?

Preempting comments:

  • My camera is weather sealed, and was cleaned afterwards
  • This is a cheap old lens that badly needs retiring. Typical shots are not great (low contrast, purple fringing), but not this bad
  • This particular shot is f/5.6, 1/500s, 160 ISO
loopbackbee
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  • From where are you taking the pictures? Are you in the water? On the beach? On a pier? – user1118321 Nov 25 '16 at 02:00
  • @user1118321 In the beach, 3m from the water. I'd have liked to have moved further away, but as I mentioned, was at the limit of the focal length – loopbackbee Nov 25 '16 at 02:07
  • How are you focussing? An automatic system may well pick something other than the surfer. – Carl Witthoft Nov 25 '16 at 23:09
  • You're not just having focus problems due to the spray on your lens. You're letting the camera decide where it wants to focus instead of learning how to tell the camera where you want it to focus. Please see the following question for more: http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/61593/pictures-start-in-focus-then-go-out-of-focus/61597#61597 – Michael C Nov 26 '16 at 13:24
  • @MichaelClark Actually, I was using manual focus for almost all of the shots, because AF is too slow/finicky on this lens for action shots (the focusing ring range is over half a revolution). If you expand the picture, you'll see the whole thing seems out of focus, from the foreground to the horizon. I'm sure I didn't do a fantastic job with manual focus, but I wouldn't miss the entire frame on all the pictures :) – loopbackbee Nov 26 '16 at 20:52
  • @CarlWitthoft Manual focus, as I just replied to MichaelClark – loopbackbee Nov 26 '16 at 20:52
  • @user1118321The photo in your example appears to be focused on the far horizon where the water meets the sky. It is more in focus than anything closer. There also appears to be a little camera motion. Even though your Tv is 1/500, at 300mm on a crop body that is the angular equivalent of 480mm. Even though that is slightly within the 1/focal length rule-of-thumb, that rule also assume good camera stabilization technique. – Michael C Nov 26 '16 at 23:10
  • You've got plenty of room to kick the ISO up to about 800 and try Tvs of around 1/1250 second at f/8 where your lens should be the sharpest. Every DLSR released in the past ten years should be able to get good image quality at ISO 800. – Michael C Nov 26 '16 at 23:14

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One option would be to position yourself so that the spray is at an angle to your lens while also using a lens hood. For example, in the above images, if you moved to either the right or left you should still be able to get reasonably good images from roughly the same distance, but with less spray actually hitting your lens.

If there's any way to get perpendicular to the spray, that would be best. I've had good luck getting images of surfers from a pier with a 70-300mm on a crop sensor:

Surfer from pier

It's a little dark due to the time of day, but luckily, no spray on the lens.

user1118321
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  • Good point! The wind was blowing head on, and the hood on this lens is pretty long, so as long as I moved a reasonably long distance, this should have helped. I'll try this next time – loopbackbee Nov 26 '16 at 20:55
  • Also, that's a pretty cool shot :) Did you crop this afterwards, or manage to keep tracking the surfer? – loopbackbee Nov 26 '16 at 20:56
  • It's not cropped. It's at 300mm on a Canon 7D, so a crop sensor, but I didn't crop it in post. The surf fairly close to the pier here, though, so that helped. :-) – user1118321 Nov 26 '16 at 22:51