Need Help With A Wide-Angle Picture

[Tenor1]

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What is the technique needed to keep structures straight when using a wider-angle lens? I was using a DLux-4 in Florence and the bell tower next to the church leans too much. I made the leaning tower of Florence, but I don't think the people of Piza would appreciate it.

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[luigi bertolotti]

Absolutely UNAVOIDABLE using wideangles (and normal lenses, too), expecially when you point the camera upwards. On reflex cameras special lenses with tilt & shift of optics are available, to have a certain degree of correction; large format cameras, with big bellows, allow large movements of lenses for this purpose.

But digital post processing can be of help (and, indeed, also traditional film enlargers, with tilting base for paper).

This is a quick adjusting of your picture made with Photoshop ... posing attention in the framing, when taking the picture, one can achieve good corrections in this way.

[ATTACH]163829[/ATTACH]

[Tenor1]

Thanks Luigi for helping me keep the leaning tower IN Piza. I hoped there was a camera technique while taking the picture, but I'm glad there is a post production tool. How appropriate that an Italian helped with this picture.

 

Thank you,

[dave_d]

Keep the camera back parrallel to the face of the building. A shift lens comes in handy otherwise correct in post production. The tilting of the camera causes the the lines to converge.

[farnz]

Thanks Luigi for helping me keep the leaning tower IN Piza. I hoped there was a camera technique while taking the picture, but I'm glad there is a post production tool. How appropriate that an Italian helped with this picture.

 

Thank you,

Unfortunately, as you can see, Carlos, with extreme examples that are corrected in pp perspective can remain distorted: the rectangular tower has become triangular and the dome has gained a few pounds. In this instance it may be better to take a number of vertical shots around the subject with the camera level with the ground and stitch in pp.

 

Pete.

[Tenor1]

Thanks for the tips Dave and Pete. Pete I didn't catch the distortion issue until you pointed it out. I just thought the buildings looked some what different.

 

Thanks again!

[jankap]

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You should take a look at the stitch-software Autopano too. Very interesting!

Jan

[Overgaard]

It's actually a good habit to keep the camera plane upright for as many photographs as possible as it will straighten the lines and create less disturbance in the background as well (even doing potraits) - unless of course the dramatic effect is wanted.

 

Often it will result in a lot of concrete or floor in the buttom or ceiling in the top - which can be cropped away, and then you have a nice architecture shot with straight lines.

 

I guess it's part of composition of the frame doing so, whereas the tempting thing is to "point the camera" at what you want to shoot and crop it tight. But resolution is so good and lenses so sharp you can easily get away with taking much more than you need and crop it away later to have the perfect photo say in the 1/3 upper left corner of the frame.

[joppepop]

As already said in this thread, shooting with the camera vertically (still pointing at the horizon, if you're standing on the ground) and later stitching them in Photoshop is a very good way to solve this problem. If you don't maintain a straight plane, the stitched result can get really awful. Tilt-shift lenses could do, but even with those you might need more FOV, and end up in stitching.

[Mauribix]

You should take a look at the stitch-software Autopano too. Very interesting!

Jan

 

Or take a look at here and use a telephoto lens as well... :D

Esplora il Parco>Introduzione

[Riley]

always shoot as long a FL as you can in the firstplace

 

as for correction, i do this stuff all the time, first remove distortion if you have any

 

the it can be straightened in PS using transform, or like this in Paint Shop Pro

(which is better at this stuff anyway)

 

after you have dragged the corners out, what you must remember to do, is to reduce the height by 3/4 (on a 4x3 frame) of what was lost at the centre of the frame to restore the proportions. And just to make it clear that would be 2/3 on a 3x2 frame

 

sorry the text on the images isnt very clear....I shall reproduce the notes from top to bottom

 

top image

turn grid on select 200 pixel

select raster deform tool

compare grid to desired verticals

drag handles out to set verticals

 

bottom image

2/ then drag top up to equalise frame proportions

1/ drag handles out to set verticals

 

[Tenor1]

THANK YOU Riley! I appreciate the lesson.

 

Maurizio, although I went to Italy, I didn't learn how to speak Italian in 2 weeks. I'll go and look at an English site for that program. Thanks for sharing it with me.