Are my pics distorted?

boycee · 22 May 2007 at 09:08

Hey there just got back from some eastern europe travels and took a load of pics. Hosted at www.croyce.co.uk/photos if you care to look.

Anyway, I used the kit lens which ok isn't great by any stretch but someone said a few of my pics are really distorted. I hadn't noticed myself but perhaps I'm not looking for it.

These two in particular were pointed out as distorted.

I kinda see what he means, but is this not due to the weird angle I used, rather than the distortion from the lens? I tried some distortion removal packages dxo and ps distortion filter, but none can straighten up all the lines, as surely it's due to the perspective.

The same goes for this photo I think?

What do you guys think? is it the lens? or just my funky slightly upward angle when taking the pics?

Chris.

byteagig · 22 May 2007 at 09:32

this effect is typical of wide angle lenses, were you shooting at 18mm?

boycee · 22 May 2007 at 09:34

byteagig said:
this effect is typical of wide angle lenses, were you shooting at 18mm?

18mm indeed.

byteagig · 22 May 2007 at 09:36

i think they look ok in particular the first shot, the perspective adds to the image in my opinion

A.N.Other · 22 May 2007 at 11:36

As they were shot at 18mm, they will have an element of barrel distortion, which is common with lenses at wide angles. Persepective also obviously plays a part, as you say. You can use plugins for photoshop or separate programs to straighten them up, but they aren't too bad, so if you're not too bothered, don't worry about it.

NinjaBill · 22 May 2007 at 11:51

boycee said:

You can see the barrel distortion in this one, look at the third from right pillar, its got a horrible shape on its left hand side.

boycee · 22 May 2007 at 12:30

I kinda see where you mean, but is that not just the pillar behind it? ie you are refering to the bulge?

ElDude · 22 May 2007 at 17:57

Look at the top of the centre pillar. If you stare at that area you can actually see all the distortion very clearly.

I don't know why but I actually find it easier to see it if you cut off the sky at the top. If you look at the top right pillar at the front, you can see all the distortion on the right hand side very clearly too.

Amp34 · 22 May 2007 at 18:33

(c.o. http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html )

That is what the distortion on the kit lens looks like at 18mm. There is a bit of distortion but not that much.

boycee · 22 May 2007 at 21:46

Amp34 said:
(c.o. http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html )

That is what the distortion on the kit lens looks like at 18mm. There is a bit of distortion but not that much.

so more down to my funky angle rather than the lens then?