As light travels through the lens it has to further travel to reach the corner of your sensor than the middle, so you get vignetting. Because light travels in a wave, the further it goes the less light you have (at a the rate of one quarter the light for each doubling of the distance). When the corners of an image are noticeably darker than the rest of an image, you're witnessing vignetting. Pincushion distortion is present when the center of an image presses inward slightly. Barrel distortion is commonly seen in wide-angle lenses, and looks it like the middle of an image is bulging outward. Barrel distortion is like taking an image and wrapping it around a globe so that the center of an image bulges outward.ĭistortion comes in two main varieties: pincushion distortion and barrel distortion. This is especially apparent when you overlay a grid on top of the image.

Notice that the horizontal wood trim on the walls kind of bends as it reaches either edge. This image exhibits a textbook case of barrel distortion. This is the result of the way light passes through the elements in your lens, and it is especially noticeable when straight lines are prominent, as in architectural images. Distortionĭistortion is visible in an image when a real-life straight line becomes curved or wavy in a photo. It's probably not a program that you'll use every day but when you do need it, it's a great tool to have in your kit.Īs Jeffrey Opp said: 'I strongly suggest you choose better glass first because the lens forms the image on the sensor and if that image is not at itsīut what if you've already taken the picture? Or what if upgrading your lenses isn't an option? As it turns out, there are indeed a few things you can do to get the absolute most out of a less-than-ideal lens.īefore we dive into correcting an image, however, let's take a look at the types of corrections that your pictures may need. PTLnes is one of those single-purpose tools that does one thing and does it very well.

In this tutorial you'll learn more about lens distortion and how to correct images with PTLens, an inexpensive application for Windows and Mac. Fortunately, when we want to create a technically excellent photograph free from distortion, software can correct most lens flaws. Problems like distortion, vignetting, and color fringing are present-and distracting-in all images to varying degrees. No matter how much you spend on a lens, it is bound to have optical imperfections.

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