Imaging 2 – Projects: Project 1 Tut 1 – Image Editing Skills

Viewed 1 August 2011][Soruce ‘The Perfect Photo Blog’ http://www.perfectphotoblog.com/lens-distortion-and-perspective-correction-in-architecture-photography/414/

Lens distortion and perspective correction in architecture photography

This article is for those who do not have a tilt shift adapter or TS lens and still do architecture photography. I’ll show you how to correct perspective distortion using Photoshop. Camera lens distortions occur frequently when taking pictures of architectural subjects with a wide-angle lens and the need to use an external program. Distortion will always have place when we shoot tall buildings, tilting the camera upwards. There is no way (unless you have TS adapter or lens) to get vertical lines to be vertical on a picture, as it will fall in the middle.

However, you can easily correct camera lens distortions using Photoshop or other photo software.

Below you can find list of software for lens distortion and perspective correction and tutorial how to fix it in Adobe Photoshop

How to correct perspective distortions of an image using the Adobe Photoshop Free Transform Tool.

Before lens distortion and perspective correction

After lens distortion and perspective correction

All you have to do is:

Step 1 Open the photo in Adobe Photoshop.

Step 2 Duplicate layer

Step 3 Create Guides Lines

View -> Rulers

Create vertical and/or horizontal guide lines by dragging a vertical (and/or horizontal) guide lines from the vertical (and/or horizontal) white ruler on the left (top) side of the window.

Using rulers in Photoshop

Step 4 Edit ->Free Transform

Select the upper right corner handle and click and hold down, then hold down Control key and drag the handle to the right until building walls become parallel with guide lines correcting the tilting perspective, than the left corner move to the left.

While this technique brings the perspective to a normal view, it also has the effect of shortening the buildings. To correct this, grab the center bottom handle and drag it down until the buildings look their correct height.