Straightening Vertical Lines in Photographs (Page 3): I don't see how perspective convergence is a "distortion." That's the way things appear to your eyes. Also, objects at a distance...

cdayton

I don't see how perspective convergence is a "distortion." That's the way things appear to your eyes. Also, objects at a distance look smaller - should we enlarge them to life-size? I think straightening a horizon or adjusting for camera tilt are different issues.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...I do the majority of my perspective corrections in LR cc using the manual sliders. If you leave some working room in the initial shot it's a great tool...and, yes, sometimes it's OK to leave some tilt to the outside, just get that "tree" right! ;0)

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Correcting verticals to be perpendicular is a common standard in architectural photography. Even Ansel adams did it when the subject called for it, however, with nature subjects, it's the photographer's call since who is to say what should be perfectly vertical in nature.

However, in almost all cases, horizons should be true horizontal especially in nature after all it is unnatural to see a body of water or shoreline tilted. That doesn't ever occur in nature.

MtnMan Loc: ID

boberic wrote:

My comment was labeled as an aside, regarding rules and following them. And as far as "tilt" is concerned- in landscape photography there are times when the land "tilts" one way or the other, should a photographer fix that scene and level the "horizon" when in fact it's "tilted"? I have any number of images where the tree is dead plumb but the land is "tilted" so take your pick. I prefer the straight tree.

In my part of the world all the land tilts (aka Rocky Mountains). I make the trees vertical.

Pixelmaster Loc: New England

Those of us who use to use view cameras with swings and tilts know why and when to straighten out perspective.
Another bit of advice I use to give to my photography students is to check obvious horizontal lines in their composition
when photographing water. For instance lakes should not tilt left or right in a photograph.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Pixelmaster wrote:

Those of us who use to use view cameras with swings and tilts know why and when to straighten out perspective.
Another bit of advice I use to give to my photography students is to check obvious horizontal lines in their composition
when photographing water. For instance lakes should not tilt left or right in a photograph.

On our vacation two years ago, I photographed the cathedral in Montreal - second image in
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-404188-1.html

I accepted the automatic correction of vertical lines, then made the cross in the center vertical. I am quite sure that the remaining issues correspond to what I actually saw {I got vertigo when I looked up when too close to the building}, so I am quite comfortable leaving them there.

joegim Loc: Long Island, NY

To eliminate or minimize the convergence of vertical lines, shoot at the practically furthest distance from the subject. The closer you are at an object the more prone you are to distortions regardless of lens. Shots of a building say 50 ft. away with a 28 mm & a 85mm FF lenses will produce the same perspective & distortions. A shot of that building with the 28 mm lens that fills the frame will have more distortions than the one shot with the 85 mm that fills the frame.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

joegim wrote:

To eliminate or minimize the convergence of vertical lines, shoot at the practically furthest distance from the subject. The closer you are at an object the more prone you are to distortions regardless of lens. Shots of a building say 50 ft. away with a 28 mm & a 85mm FF lenses will produce the same perspective & distortions. A shot of that building with the 28 mm lens that fills the frame will have more distortions than the one shot with the 85 mm that fills the frame.

Looking at the second image in http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-404188-1.html
it turns out that I took it from the far end of the plaza in front of the cathedral. Initially I did do that to reduce distortion ... and then I noticed I would get more random people in the picture {good} .... and then I noticed the couple, now in the foreground, using a DSLR to take a selfie of themselves in front of the cathedral {very good}.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Rab-Eye wrote:

It is definitely a distortion. The question is, does it add or detract from your image?

It's no different than looking down a pair of railroad tracks - not distortion, but vanishing point convergence. In reality, the corrected view is a "distortion" since it is not how we really see it.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Perspective, discovered in the Renaissance.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Tikva wrote:

I was told by a photographer and teacher that I should straighten my vertical (as well as horizontal) lines in my photos. She said the walls should be straightened and not left leaning. I see many photos with leaning walls that look like they are trying to touch each other at the top. Is this a matter of personal choice, or should the walls, and all vertical lines, be straightened in most photos (not with fisheyes)? Appreciate any comments on this subject.

There is no "right " way to answer your question. If the distortion is distracting from the "message" of the photo, then straighten the lines. It really depends on the "meaning" of the photo. Distortion due to perspective is often the central theme of a picture, or is a necessary element of the composition.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

cdayton wrote:

I don't see how perspective convergence is a "distortion." That's the way things appear to your eyes. Also, objects at a distance look smaller - should we enlarge them to life-size? I think straightening a horizon or adjusting for camera tilt are different issues.

OK, it's not a distortion.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Gene51 wrote:

It's no different than looking down a pair of railroad tracks - not distortion, but vanishing point convergence. In reality, the corrected view is a "distortion" since it is not how we really see it.

Exactly! This need to have everything conforming to some rectilinear grid is completely UNNATURAL. Photographers who are postprocessing everything to conform to boxlike dimensions, are producing artificial distortions that the eye knows is wrong. The result is flat and uninteresting.

Selene03

It's possible the distortion was attractive, but probably not if the teacher mentioned it. Even if it was a little off, it seems like something that someone teaching a class should say something about, just like noticing uneven horizons. It seems to me an important point about taking a class is to learn how to be a better photographer and how to fix problems that might be there. Of course, if there is an aesthetic reason for the distortion, a student should be able to explain it. I do take a lot of pictures of large buildings, especially cathedrals and mosques, so it is a problem for me and I don't like leaning minorets and street lamps. Perspective issues can be corrected in pp, but not always. I still haven't been able to figure out how to really fix a shot of the La Sagrada Familia even though I took it standing on a bench a block away to try to reduce the leaning back, converging lines problems. I probably need to learn perspective warp or maybe try the DXO problem. I bought a tilt-shift lens, but I haven't really figured out how to use it yet.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I'll stand by the statement that bodies of water that tilt are non-nature.