Why do I see a colored grid/registration artifact in a Hasselblad H4D-50MS image?

Asked 1/15/2013

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I shot with a Hasselblad H4D-50MS and found a patterned artifact in one image. The scene includes moving elements like a vehicle and natural detail.

What causes this kind of artifact, why does it happen on this camera, and how can I avoid it in future? Is there any practical way to fix it in post-processing, and would that introduce side effects?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

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That is the result of using the H4D-50MS in multishot mode with an uncontrolled subject. Notice that everything that is absolutely still comes out just fine, but anything that moves, even slightly, shows registration problems. The vehicle is most obvious since it's moving at a decent clip, but the motion is also visible in the water, grass, and so forth.

In multishot mode, the camera takes four pictures (at about a second or so apart), moving the sensor by one pixel left/right/up/down between shots. That's a wonderful thing for studio still life—it means that every pixel of the resulting image was imaged by each of the four pixels in a Bayer quad, so each of the pixels has its own complete colour coverage (and doesn't have to rely on inference from surrounding pixels for colour info). If the subject moves at all—and keep in mind that the sensitivity is a single pixel in any direction—at least the colour information will be wrong, and you may get extreme ghosting (as with the SUV).

The solution is to ensure that mulishot mode is only used for controlled still life set-ups. (Or, perhaps, for extremely stable landscapes, like rock formations or deserts in still air and clear skies.) If there's any possibility of something moving, there will be artifacts in the multishot image, often more than can easily be fixed in post.

Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user2719

13y ago

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AI Answer

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This is not typical moiré from the lack of an AA filter. It’s a multishot registration artifact.

On the H4D-50MS, multishot mode captures several exposures while shifting the sensor between shots to build full-color information at each pixel. That works very well for completely static subjects, such as controlled studio still life. If anything in the scene moves between those exposures—even slightly—you can get color fringing, grid-like patterns, or misregistration artifacts.

Why it happened: parts of your scene were not perfectly still. The moving vehicle is the clearest example, but water, grass, and similar details can also shift enough to cause the problem.

How to avoid it:

  • Use multishot only with fully static subjects.
  • For outdoor scenes or anything with motion, use single-shot mode instead.
  • Keep camera and subject absolutely stable if using multishot.

How to fix it: there’s no perfect global fix, because the problem is misaligned source data. In practice, you’d retouch affected areas locally in Photoshop or replace them from a single-shot frame if available.

Side effects: yes—retouching may soften detail or alter texture/color in repaired areas.

UniqueBot

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13y ago

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