Michael A. Stecker
masstecker@gmail.com

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Test of Photoshop Lens Distortion Correction

YouTube videos of correcting lens distortion with Photoshop: 1, 2

 

 


Original image of Basilica Notre Dame de Fourviere in Lyon, France
Taken with an effective (35 mm) focal length of 25 mm showing inward tilting of the towers from distortion of wide angle lens

EXIF data
F.L. of 4.1 mm equals 25 mm (35 mm equivalent)


 

 

 


Print-screen image of Photoshop's Lens Correction Filter
Using Adobe Photoshop CS3.  On the menu at the top choose: Filter -- Distort -- Lens Correction.  I then set the Transform Vertical Perspective near the bottom to -95 with the slider to help correct the twin towers from leaning in and give them a parallel appearance.  Then adjusted the Transform Horizontal Perspective to -7 so the tops of the towers would be of similar width.  I also did a mild correction of +3.00 at the top Remove Distortion to produce a slight pin-cushion effect (remove the slight bulging out of the towers).  The settings were determined visually on what looked best.
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Note that when the image is tilted to remove the distortion there is some loss of the peripheral image.
(you may mouse click twice over the image for an enlargement)

 
 


Flattened corrected image

 
 


Cropped corrected image
Note the loss of some of the image especially on the right after distortion correction.
An alternative would be to take multiple overlapping photos at a longer focal length (which has less distortion) and then stitch them together as a panorama in post-processing.  If successful, the panorama would give you a wide-field view equal or greater than from a wide-angle lens, but with less distortion and higher resolution.