nikon_jon Loc: Northeast Arkansas

The key is to keep your camera and the building as nearly parallel as possible. This may require that you move away some to get the whole building in the picture. On Ebay you can find small bubble levels that fit into the hot shoe on the camera. This will help you get your camera perfectly level and thus parallel to the building. Some tripods have levels built into the head.

When circumstances don't allow this, Paint Shop Pro has a good perspective control feature that does an adequate job in correcting this, but as someone else mentioned, sometimes,this adds other distortions.

I saw a reference to parallax in one of the comments. This problem is not parallax. It is a problem of perspective. Parallax is what happened with the old rangefinder cameras that did not have through-the-lens viewing. The scene through the viewing window did not match the subject and often heads were cut off in the photo, or the tops of buildings the same. It most often happened when you were too close to the subject.

It is true that sometimes you cut off the tops of buildings in a photo when using an SLR but this is not specifically referenced by the term parallax because you see the whole scene in the viewer as it appears to the front of the camera. There are times when you have to make a choice because of your proximity to the building. Do I cut off some of the top or some of the bottom?

Boentgru Loc: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

It's expensive, but a tilt and shift lens is designed for this purpose.

jimbo70 Loc: Orange Park, FL.

Bazbo Loc: Lisboa, Portugal

quote=John_F]When I take pictures of tall buildings they always lilt so the tops look closer than the bottoms. I know this is an optical effect and that architects cameras have a moveable front section to correct. But how to correct with a regular camera.[/quote]
Try Perspective Warp in PS

rebergie Loc: CT

Photoshop has a "perspective" tool that you can use when you go to crop an image. It's like a well-kept secret that only appears once you have initiated your crop

rebergie Loc: CT

Photoshop has a "perspective" tool that you can use when you go to crop an image. It's like a well-kept secret that only appears once you have initiated your crop

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

There are perspective control lenses. Depending on the brand of camera is what is available for you to use. These are generally quite expensive.
But in Photo Shop and other editing programs this perspective correction can be on the computer. You will need to make sure you add space on each side of the subject to allow for the cropping that is needed for the correction. Try this on any photo and you will see what I mean.
Though on some buildings like pointing up at a sky scraper you might wish to leave the vanishing point lines as it is actually more realistic. So be judicious in your use of this. Take it from an Architect.

howlynn Loc: pueblo west, co

:thumbup: :thumbup:

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

2 possible solutions without resorting to post processing: 1. keep the camera level with the ground when taking the shot. You may have to use a wider angle lens to do this. 2. Go for a vertical format shot that will allow you to keep the camera level yet still get the entire building in the scene.

1Feathercrest Loc: NEPA

There are some programs that will correct this to some extent. The bellows of the News photographers cameras (Graflex) of old allowed compensation for this by tilting the lens. I can't cite specific photo programs that will correct the parralax of an existing image but there are some that are much less expensive than PhotoShop.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

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The first setting with a 'Technical camera' after basic focus, would be Rising Front ...followed by swing/tilt where necessary to get the amount of focus depth that you want. Final focus tweeking, and you are ready to expose.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Unfortunately there are times space does not allow you to back up to accomplish what is desired.
The nice thing about the software is if you mess it up on your first try do it over until it "Looks" correct to you. Just make sure you do not work on the original image.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I want to thank everyone for their excellant replies and suggestions.

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

Skewing is the term I learned in Gimp (ok, I'm cheap.) Sounds like the same as perspective control in other applications. In effect, you are applying variable zoom, or stretching two corners apart in post processing to counteract, in part, the different "effective" focal lengths that were used when making the original image using a standard lens and a flat sensor. For example, with a 24mm lens in a FF camera, the image distance for the upper floors might be 24mm while the lower floors may be effectively using a 28mm lens. (Image distance being measured from the lens to the image.) Not only that, but the lower floors are closer, assuming you are shooting from street level, so they take up a larger portion of the field of view than the more distant upper floors. Making the upper floors appear the same size to occupy the same portion of the frame as the lower floors gives the weird effect mentioned by mcveed above. Not very scientific, but that's one perspective.

stan0301 Loc: Colorado

I have 3 tilt shift lenses, but using my Sigma 8-16 does more than they do--you may have to finish touching up in Photoshop--but it is very easy and you get to watch it happen
Stan