correcting distortion

[swan lover]

I've been asked to photograph a local chapel, due to lack of ''room'' and hot having a ultra wide angle lens I've had to do it panorama style, this makes some of the windows ''lean in'' is there away of correcting this?

[donoreo]

Originally Posted by swan lover

I've been asked to photograph a local chapel, due to lack of ''room'' and hot having a ultra wide angle lens I've had to do it panorama style, this makes some of the windows ''lean in'' is there away of correcting this?

Yes. Look up "correcting vertical convergence" . There is probably a tutorial here on how to do it, but there are many online.

[GeoffWessex]

I don't know which software you use, but in PS or PS Elements you can find 'Transform' > Distort. You can then click and drag on the corners of the image to pull them out to straighten them up.... but the drawback is that you're going to have to crop the wasted bits off afterwards. Still, it does work.

Then there's the 'Correct Camera Distortion' filter..... try the 'Vertical Perspective' sliders that increase the top width and reduce the bottom width - or vice versa. This great if your converging verticals are roughly the same each side of the picture.... they're usually not, so you'll have to fine tune with the Transform > Distort.

Just beware one thing...... though a camera makes the converging verticals look worse than they were in real life, they are a natural result of looking upwards.... it's just 'perspective'. If your picture is taken from floor level and yet the resulting photograph actually achieves straight and parallel verticals it can look very odd - the human brain kind of 'expects' some convergence - so perhaps it shouldn't be completely removed.

If you've been asked to take photographs you must be competent with the camera - but you'll need to be equally competent with your editing.

[Cathus]

don't forget that if you use the transform tool to adjust the verticals this will make the building look fatter than it is so after you've done it you will need to stretch it a little to bring it back into proportion. i.e. transform again but pull the top of the image upwards or the bottom down (or both depending on how much free space you have above or below the building)

[swan lover]

thank you all for oyur input I'll put the info to good use and post he e how I got on.

[swan lover]

Client was happy with picture and I've posted on my personal page, an ycomments would be grateful.

[donoreo]

Originally Posted by swan lover

Client was happy with picture and I've posted on my personal page, an ycomments would be grateful.

Link to personal page?

[rbarry]

Hi Swanlover,

You've done a good job of stitching the images together and correcting the distortion. The highlights look a bit blown in the sky top left. It's easy to criticise with the benefit of hindsight, but dropping the exposure down a notch or two in this area at the time would have helped. It's possible to rescue an underexposed image in post but impossible to fix blown highlights.
Not wanting to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs, but another way around this would have been to bracket each shot with three images, choose the best ones for stitching the final result and fine tune later using layers and masks. Then, when you've had your fifth cup of coffee and the clock shows 4.00am, go to bed!

Rick

[GeoffWessex]

I thought I'd take a look at this one myself, just for fun - so I changed the sky, straightened the verticals a bit more and reduced that tacky building on the left...... then noticed the garbage bags! If somebody else asks you to take photographs you'll have to negotiate who exactly should remove the rubbish!

Anyway...

[swan lover]

Thank you for your comments, a freind who uses photoshop for a living advised me to ''leave it as it was'' and he like me missed the rubbish bags! I appolagise for not putting a link to my web page Donoreo, time in the public Library (were only allowed 1hr) means I've yet to learn all these tricks, thank you all again.