Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I am struggling with this image, I am trying to straighten the tower and change the perspective (so it won't fall over) but without changing the perspective of the wall and without distorting the background (fence and foliage).

I have tried Perspective Warp in PS but everything gets changed, so I selected just the tower and tried free transform. To a degree this worked, but left a mess behind to clean up which was worse to look that the leaning tower.

If anyone knows the solution I would appreciate some pointers and guidance. thank you.

By the way, the image is not great because I shot it at 1/20 sec at f/22 ISO 100 handheld. Not a lot going for sharpness that route.

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dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

Here's an amateur's attempt.

Selected tower and put on separate layer.
Perspective tool to broaden top a little and narrow bottom a little.

Clone stamp tool and used sky to fill areas where original tower was showing.

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kubota king Loc: NW , Pa.

this is what I used. I opened your photo in photoshop CC 2015 . I clicked on filters ,camera raw . Than I clicked on lens correction just above the word basic . Click on manual just under the word upright . Click on the box on the far right that looks like a tic tac toe board . Click ok . Nothing needs cleaned up afterwards , Tommy

PS , you can use the clarity slider under camera raw to gain some more detail if you like too. I tried that after posting this photo

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dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

Wow ... that works great ... thanks kubota king.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

kubota king nailed it, In the older programs, after going to filers, lens correction, Use the manual adjust sliders. Then go to Filters, Sharpen, I like to use Smart Sharpen, to your taste.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I'm posting this more for ideas rather than as a finished edit. In Lightroom manual lens corrections:-

Distortion +62

Vertical +6

Aspect -8

Nothing else.

-

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lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Not sure if this is what you want as my perspective changes are global and will affect the wall as well as the tower.
Let me know what you think.
ACR 6.7 straighten to take it a fraction anti clockwise.
Open in CS5.
New Layer.
Edit-Transform-Perspective
Pulled the top left corner a fraction left - just eyeballed it.
Flattened.
Open new layer in Viveza and gave the tower a slight structure and contrast adjustment and selective brightness. Bottom control point darken, top control point lighten. Might have put a couple of neutral control points in, I forget.
Flatten
Save as new.

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MyPharo Loc: New Jersey

I use Elements 11 .
First I added a grid to see is the photo was off or was it the building or perspective from where it was shot.
I used Filter / correct camera distortion
Then I made slight adjustments while looking at the grid lines to keep it all in perspective to be straight.
I then added a High Pass filter to sharpen the photo just a touch .
then a very light adj to the Level and contrast ..
then a auto color adjustment . I think the photo is better balanced and pops just a little more .

Nice shot and it was a good photo even before the adjustments ..

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Mercer Loc: Houston, TX, USA

Being a lazy person, I would probably do the following, and not tell anyone:

1. Note the fence is on and off vertical along its length.
2. Tilt the entire photo to correct the tower.
3. Hopefully, nobody would notice the fence, the path, the woods, or the wall.

Quite often I am mistaken, and probably am mistaken now.
...but I would try to get away with it.

Mercer Loc: Houston, TX, USA

Damn. I did it again.

forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

Curious what led to your approach?

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Thanks for posting, Searcher.
I played with it in GIMP.

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Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Thanks guys, I used a combination of your methods to achieve almost what I wanted.

Dannac, thank you but I found the clone stamp difficult to use on this - shaky hands and temporarily impaired eyes - so I gave up on your method - good they it was.

Kubota King: I had already run through the lens correction menus a couple of times, but you certainly got further than I did, thank you.

Lighthouse: It was your method (almost) that I settled on.
Opened Transform > Perspective, straightened the tower by pulling the top centre grab handle just a wee bit to the right, then redid by pulling the top left grabber to the left to widen the top of the tower. I have not got Viveza so I ignored the rest.

MyPharo: Just goes to show that Elements can do just as good a job as PS in the right hands. Sharpening will be my next operation once I have run the whole thing through an anti shake filter. I don't hold out too many hopes though, anything bigger than 6x4 will show blur.

Mercer: I like your style. Whenever I view this image, I will be tempted to put a table mat under the left leg of the monitor.

Shakey: Thanks, as you know GIMP is a program I have not yet come to terms with. I do know it is a very capable piece of software and I have no hesitation in telling others that. After eighteen years of Adobe methods I have found it very difficult to move across.

This image is one of my better ones composition-wise but one of the worst exposures I have ever done. I have already kicked myself a dozen times, thank you for not rubbing it in further.

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Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Please use "Quote Reply" when responding, then we will know who your question is targeting.

If it was Mercer, he has already explained himself :-D

forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

Thanks, Searcher..
I have been hoping to hear from kubota_king.