Which program for lens perspective correction?

[chris1911]

What program do you guys use to correct the lens perspective (can't remember what that's called)? The Canon photo pro program has the function, but is not compatible with all lenses and is grayed out with pics from my EF 28-105mm 3.5/4.5 II USM lens. Is the pic below correctable with the way the buildings appear to be leaning toward the center and overlapping?




http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p246/chris1911/20080516_0827800x600.jpg

[René Damkot]

There are two different things here: Lens distortion (a square becoming a bit pillow shaped or rounded), and keystoning (the buildings leaning in).

The first can be corrected by DPP for certain lenses, the second cannot.

I use Photoshops Lens Correction filter for both corrections.

[PixelMagic]

Many people use DxO Optics Pro but I prefer PTLens from ePaper Press

http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/

[Ade H]

DxO seems to be nothing but trouble -- I have installed trial versions on three occasions (I don't like to write things off completely after one bad experience) and each one had major bugs or design flaws. The most recent installation decided to create a kind of barrel distortion and altered the colours every time I opened a file. The first trial wouldn't even open a file....

PTLens gets my vote for being simple and cheap. I have the trial version installed and I'll almost certainly buy a license.

[TheHoff]

There are two different things here: Lens distortion (a square becoming a bit pillow shaped or rounded), and keystoning (the buildings leaning in).

The first can be corrected by DPP for certain lenses, the second cannot.

I use Photoshops Lens Correction filter for both corrections.

Hey René, have you done much testing with DPP? I'm wondering if it is useful to use DPP in my workflow with the 16-35. I find myself spending a few minutes sometimes with Photoshop trying to get the distortion correct... if DPP has different corrections depending on the focal length of the zoom, I think it could be easier than using CS3 since you have to come out of Lightroom anyway.

[chris1911]

Thanks for the replies.

That PTLens program is very easy to use and i like the way it works with PS. I think i'll buy the license.

What did photographers do about this stuff before computer processing came around?

[Ade H]

What did photographers do about this stuff before computer processing came around?

Lived with it, or used tilt/shift lenses!

[BillyR]

Many people use DxO Optics Pro but I prefer PTLens from ePaper Press

http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/ Thanks, Fedka! I've been looking for such a program for a long time, ever since I wasted a lot of money on the DxO program a few years ago, and could never figure out how to use it. I downloaded the trial version of PTLens, and it took all of 30 seconds to remove the distortion from an image taken at 12mm with my Sigma 12-24. I immediately paid the $15 for the license. This is the best bargain I've come across in a long time!

[PixelMagic]

You're welcome. Its an excellent piece of software and I think it has a larger lens database than DxO Optics Pro. I avoid DxO; the last time I installed it I ended up having to reformat my hard drive.

[René Damkot]

Hey René, have you done much testing with DPP? I'm wondering if it is useful to use DPP in my workflow with the 16-35. I find myself spending a few minutes sometimes with Photoshop trying to get the distortion correct... if DPP has different corrections depending on the focal length of the zoom, I think it could be easier than using CS3 since you have to come out of Lightroom anyway.

Haven't done much testing, since most of my lenses aren't supported, but I've tried it once with a borrowed 16-35L v2. Removed the CA and distortion nicely IMO.

Then again, I don't shoot too much that requires this, and find PS easier to use, also because you can correct the keystoning there as well.

There is a bit about the lens correction tab in the new DPP tutorials (http://www.usa.canon.com/content/dpp2/index.html)

[chris1911]

You're welcome. Its an excellent piece of software and I think it has a larger lens database than DxO Optics Pro. I avoid DxO; the last time I installed it I ended up having to reformat my hard drive.


DxO is far pricier as well.

[Lowner]

"What did photographers do about this stuff before computer processing came around?
Lived with it, or used tilt/shift lenses!"

Not true! To correct perspective distortion (keystoning) we used to stop the enlarger lens well down to maximise DoF, then raised one end of the paper holder.

Everyone thinks that these problems are new to the computer age when the reality is that really skilled printers were able to do virtually everything now done in Photoshop, and possibly a lot more. It just took a lot longer!

Richard

[TheHoff]

Then again, I don't shoot too much that requires this, and find PS easier to use, also because you can correct the keystoning there as well.

Ah yea, that was the part I forgot about -- the keystoning correction AND distortion correction AND any rotational issue can all be done with Photoshop in one swoop -- whereas the DPP process would only do the distortion and you'd have to re-process to correct the other two.

[René Damkot]

we used to stop the enlarger lens well down to maximise DoF

Or, better, tilt the enlager lens, so Scheimpflug took care of the focusplane being on the paper :p

[airfrogusmc]

You can also do it in photoshop with transform/warp.