Perspective distortion using wide angle lenses

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2004
Posts
7,620
Location
Derry
Recently I've been taking a lot of city shots using a wide angle lens (Sigma 10-25 3.5) and as it's very difficult to get yourself in a position to zoom out most photos have perspective and distortion issues. I've tried and failed many times using the Adaptive Wide Angle filter in PS with no success but DXO viewpoint has managed an acceptable job, before I fork out for Viewpoint is there any other software I should be considering?

Many thanks
 
I'm not sure if these are any good for making curves lines straight or if they are just "straightening" applications.
http://www.colorpilot.com/perspective.html
http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/
http://www.shiftn.de/

I've used Perspective Pilot (top link) in the past for straightening and it's very good.
It allows you to "draw" multiple lines across the image (not just 2 vertical and 2 horizontals). It doesn't (or didn't) allow you to use 16bit files, only 8bit.

I agree Adaptive Wide Angle is POS, especially if you're using Scaling on your Windows monitor.
Plus it's very slow and clunky.
 
Marzipanogram said:
I'm not sure if these are any good for making curves lines straight or if they are just "straightening" applications.
http://www.colorpilot.com/perspective.html
http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/
http://www.shiftn.de/

I've used Perspective Pilot (top link) in the past for straightening and it's very good.
It allows you to "draw" multiple lines across the image (not just 2 vertical and 2 horizontals). It doesn't (or didn't) allow you to use 16bit files, only 8bit.

I agree Adaptive Wide Angle is POS, especially if you're using Scaling on your Windows monitor.
Plus it's very slow and clunky.
Click to expand...

Perspective Pilot was exactly what I was after! Thank you.
 
Can anyone show some bad cases of this? Can't say I've ever felt the need to correct perspective. It comes with the nature of using a WA lens surely? :confused:
 
Same building taken a few years apart. One taken on a Canon 50D with the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens and the other on a Canon 5D Mark III with the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L MK II


Oh by the way, don't forget Lightroom, that (well certainly version 6) has perspective correction tools as well.
 
Last edited:
Scam said:
The second one looks way odd to me :p
Click to expand...


The second one has been over done, even if the verticals are not truly vertical, it is normally a good idea to leave a small amount of keystoning to avoid that oddness. Optimal would eb a middle ground between the2, someone closer to the second than the first
 
They're examples of how the perspective can be altered with the lenses, certainly not claiming they're perfect by any sense.

Lets see your examples of your personal pictures illustrating what you mean DP?
 
Andy90 said:
They're examples of how the perspective can be altered with the lenses, certainly not claiming they're perfect by any sense.

Lets see your examples of your personal pictures illustrating what you mean DP?
Click to expand...

Don't have acces to my photos at work but here is a random sample form google search, http://www.hdrone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lens-correction-example-shot.jpg
Ignroe the horrific HDR,. The adjusted version has sitll left some converging verticals but the magnitude of distortion is greatly reduced resulting ina more natural looking geometry (ruined by the unnatural HDR).


Your second photo is OK, but as SCAM pointed out, if you correct vertical completely it can make the image seem unnatural. The reason it looks odd is because if you stood where the camera was and looked up at the building your eyes would see the converging verticals so to see a photo without any convergence is odd. But it is dependent on the scene. For example the front facade of a building is photographed parrael and horizontal will naturally have no key-stoning, so in scenario where you can;t get the camera horizontal apply corrections in a PC lens or in software will still result in a natural looking image, the viewer would just see it as if the camera was higher than it actually was.
 
Yeah, I suppose we're not used to seeing a building completely straight, even though it clearly is in real life - brain compensating I suspect. I'll apply a small degree of tilt next time rather than adjusting it completely upright.

Must admit haven't used the TSE for a while, will have to give it more of an outing. It is also very handy for panorama photography.
 
I only really do this for panorama stitching.
I tend to get a better result if I correct for distortion before stitching.

Lightroom does a good enough job for me, but not all my lenses are supported as I'm still on LR5.

I have tried to do this using the lightroom sliders, but I didn't get great results.
 
Scam said:
Can anyone show some bad cases of this? Can't say I've ever felt the need to correct perspective. It comes with the nature of using a WA lens surely? :confused:
Click to expand...

Perspective pilot, 2 clicks made this a lot better (not perfect by a long way, especially given the amount of rubbbish cloning required after the crop)


bFavmMm.jpg
 
neodude said:
I generally get good results using lens correction in LR using the appropriate profile for whatever lens I'm using.
Click to expand...
It works well but you loose a lot of resolution in doing that, for stuff that wont get printed large that isn't really a problem with a modern sensor.
 
Forgive me for messing with your image.
But I'd recommend adding more horizontal controlling lines (marked in red), to try and force the right side of the building up.
wL038Ud.jpg
Another way would be to use the Transform and Warp tools.
To do that press CTRL A (to select the entire image), then CTRL T, right click on the image and select Warp.
Then manipulate the "grid".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom