Chris63 Loc: Central WI

I do a lot of architecture photography (snapshots) with Sony A7 II.
I am ready to graduate to something that would let me "straighten up" buildings, trees, etc.

Any recommendations, either for a lens, or for software (i.e. cost, quality of output)?

P.S. Is there any very simple software available (perhaps an add-on for my PC) that would feature tilt-shift as a main feature?
Thanks

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

If you use photoshop you can straighten it there

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Or Lightroom Classic.

stan0301 Loc: Colorado

Have both - but very easy with Photoshop

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Or even Photoshop Elements.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Using a lens helps you visualize the shot in live time so I would think both would be most helpful. You could see the shot in-camera and then tweak it in Post Production.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Years ago, I had a 35mm shift lens for my Olympus film cameras. It was fairly effective, but was limited to manual stop-down operation and had noticeable brightness fall-off at the most extreme shifts. And f/3.5 could be pretty limiting. I've not used any modern tilt lenses.

One thing to keep in mind is that any straightening or perspective adjustments that are done in post processing will result in some loss of fine detail. This results from the trigonometry of moving pixels around. It is unavoidable and uncorrectable, although there are techniques that can mitigate the impact on overall appearance.

You don't mention what lens(es) you use for your architectural photography, but the simplest and most straightforward method for me is to use a full-frame rectilinear extreme wide angle lens. This allows me to keep the film plane vertical and parallel to the building front. Doing so eliminates the most objectionable distortions. The only cost is some surplus pixels lost to an excessive amount of foreground, which can be easily cropped away. (I'm doing what a shift lens would do, just without the shift.) I use my 14-24mm f/2.8 lens for this.

I realize that this may not work for you. Architectural photography is an occasional thing for me, whereas it seems to be a more serious pursuit for you. But it might be an option while you are deciding which route to follow.

Chris63 Loc: Central WI

Thanks a lot for a very informative response to my question.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Post-process9ng perspective tools can somewhat correct certainly
kinds of linear distortion, converging lines, and the look of the building falling over forward or backward. A TILT and shift lens can address all ofhte aforementioned corrections, without loss of sharpness, but can tilt to increase DOP via the Scheimpflug principle and can shift to a vertical rise or fall to correct for foreshortening.

https://www.opticsforhire.com/blog/scheimpflug-principle/amp/

MrPhotog

electronically:

It is built into one of my cameras (Leica M-11), but I've only used the feature once or twice. I understand that other cameras may also have this built in. Similar function in Photoshop lets me use the larger computer screen, which I prefer.

Optically:

Tilt is fairly useless for architectural use. It mainly helps with depth of field in a single plane in close-up photos. What you need is shift. By moving the center of the lens away from the center line of the frame, and keeping the sensor perfectly vertical you get the result you want. Typically you would want a wide-angle lens designed to cover a field much larger than the sensor size.

B&H has a nice write-up, with copious photo examples, of 2 Fotodiox adapters which uses lenses designed (in these cases) for using Nikon and Hasselblad lenses on a Sony mirrorless body--in this case a Sony aII, like yours.

Be careful in shopping. There are other adapters sold as "tilt shift", but they only tilt.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-on-review/in-the-field-fotodiox-pro-tlt-rokr-tilt-shift-adapters

In the article they compare a Hasselblad 50 mm lens with a Nikon 50 mm lens. You can see that the lens for the Hasselblad, which is made to cover the larger medium format size, has less vignetting than the Nikon designed to cover just a 35mm frame, when shifted. (Vignetting can be a problem with shifted lenses which you don't see in an electronically or digitally modified image.)

The nice thing about these adapters, tho, is that you can buy one. in Nikon mount and use it with many different Nikon lenses. So, if you got a vintage wide-angle lens, or a zoom, you could use the shift feature. Like most adapters, you'll not have an automatic aperture, but the viewfinder stays bright, even when composing with the lens stopped down, and buildings are often focused at infinity, on sunny days, so depth of field solves most focus issues.

Of course, if you get a less expensive adapter which does not have a shifting feature you can still use those other lenses and correct the key stoning in photoshop. Or use lenses with built in shift ability.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

A 17mm TS-E lens adapted to your camera is the best option.
You don't have to distort your image in post losing quality, or if you still have to it will be far less dramatic. The lens is designed with a much larger image circle so vignetting is not an issue as it would be using a shift adapter on a regular lens with a much smaller image circle not designed to be shifted.
I do not own the lens as I cannot justify the cost, but have rented it as needed for various projects I designed.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I don't have enough need for tilt correction to buy hardware. When necessary, I use software.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Well, you know how serious architectural photography was done in the film era, one used a 4x5", 5x7", or 8x10" view camera with full movements of Swings & Tilts & Rises & Falls of both front and back standards. Today there are digital large format (view) cameras but they are mucho expensive. They can be rented if you don't need one everyday.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

I do a fair amount of real estate photography for area realtors. I don’t own a tilt shift lens but use Lightroom for distortion corrections. It works incredibly well for my less than critical clients comparing features from many different homes on the market, so I don’t feel the need to step up to a higher level photographically. One tip I would offer is to shoot buildings slightly loose since LR will crop out areas as it performs the corrections. Since time is money, and with real estate not paying significantly, my aim is to get the job done a fast as possible. So a tilt-shift lens is not on my want list.