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How to Adjust Barrel/Lens Distortion in Your Photos
Monday, May 21, 2007 12:09 am

You might notice that when you take a picture of a building or other structures with straight vertical edges, that the closer to the edge of the photograph it is, the more curved it becomes:

Barrel distorted edges

This is inevitable with any camera with a circular lens, and the angle will be different depending on where you’re standing (relative to the horizon line). It may not be apparent, and you may not even care, but if you’re like me and that sort of stuff drives you kinda crazy, here’s what you can do to fix it in Photoshop:

Filter > Distort > Lens Correction…

On the right-hand side, there should be a “Transform” section where you can play around with the Vertical and Horizontal Perspective. Keep in mind that when you do this, take the rest of the picture into consideration so that a section doesn’t become too “pinched.” You’ll also probably have to crop the photo a little bit to compensate for edges that are being tucked in. Hit OK and you’re done:

Barrel distorted edges fixed

It’s amazing how the human eye can ignore this distortion when we’re at the scene and we still interpret the columns as being 90-degree vertical lines.

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Posted by RayAna M Park in : Photoshop, digital photography