Software for correcting verticals?

Brazo

Brazo

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Mark
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I like to shoot architecture and point the camera up! I’m fullly aware of the effects this has on the photo but on occasion I just can’t get the balance of the image right in either side and was wondering if there was any software that specialises in correcting angles/lines etc (as far as is reasonably practical!)

I have Lightroom and have met it’s limitations. I use PS too but have the skills of a rhinoceros!
 
Surprised you have met the limits of Lightroom... For a cost (£60) you have DXO Viewpoint which is well worth having a look at.
 
TBH Lightroom is weak correcting distortions, and runs out of adjustment very quickly indeed. DXO Viewpoint or DXO Optics Pro Elite versions have all the capability you need. DXO OP 9 Elite (free a couple of years back) is my go-to when LR can't hack it - note that I also have the free version 11 standard from last year that does NOT have the correction capability.
 
Surely Photoshop / select all / edit / transform / distort does what you want? Keep an eye on the proportions of the subject though ... to keep it 'true to life'.
 
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I think if you go into chromatic aberration in LR it should sort it out.
 
Thank you. I’ll try the photoshop bit if not the dxo viewpoint sounds interesting.
 
PhilH04 said:
Surprised you have met the limits of Lightroom... For a cost (£60) you have DXO Viewpoint which is well worth having a look at.
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Is that standalone, or do you need the full DXO system?
 
I assume you have used the facility in Camera Raw?
 
droj said:
And come on guys, the Photoshop feature that I mentioned is pretty fully articulated, much more than anything in LR or CR ...
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I don't have photoshop, so couldn't offer advice in that direction.
 
droj said:
And come on guys, the Photoshop feature that I mentioned is pretty fully articulated, much more than anything in LR or CR ...
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ACR has always worked fine for me and it's the first screen I see when loading an image into PS ... mind you I get things somewhere near right in camera. :)
 
gramps said:
mind you I get things somewhere near right in camera. :)
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There are times when that's not possible without a TS lens, in which case being able to perform major surgery is useful.
 
droj said:
And come on guys, the Photoshop feature that I mentioned is pretty fully articulated, much more than anything in LR or CR ...
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Agreed... its just that the OP hinted that he was not good with Photoshop, so assumed he knew.
 
droj said:
Surely Photoshop / select all / edit / transform / distort does what you want? Keep an eye on the proportions of the subject though ... to keep it 'true to life'.
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That's the problem with Photoshop's transform -- it lets you do any transform you like, including optically and perspectively impossible ones which no tilt shift lens could ever do.

PTLens is both a standalone program or a Photoshop plugin (which will work as a plugin in other programs if they're Photoshop plugin compatible). It's relatively cheap freeware, and does a very good job of perspective shifts, including optionally automatically correcting the geometric distortions of your model of camera and whatever lens you have on it by reading the information from the EXIF data and using its very compreghensive database. It also includes a manually adjustable fisheye defishing mode, which allows you to fish for a reasonably acceptable nearly rectilinear wide angle transform from a crop from a fisheye lens. It also has manual lateral chromatic aberration correction. The free demo versions has all the features, but only works on jpegs.

I've been very happily using it for my architectural shots for around a decade.
 
droj said:
What's CA got to do with it?
...
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Nothing I guess but the lens correction tab is directly below the ca/lens profile tab in the Lightroom develop module so maybe that’s the cryptic clue:thumb:
 
Thanks to all. I will try photoshop first:D
 
DXO Viewpoint is what you want, try out the trial version to be sure, it's straight forward and easy to use and does the job. They have special offers from time to time.
 
Brazo said:
Nothing I guess but the lens correction tab is directly below the ca/lens profile tab in the Lightroom develop module so maybe that’s the cryptic clue:thumb:
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I was not at home when I replied, but it seems the old memory is still intact!

I have LR 5.7, if I select Lens Correction in the Develop Module.

Under the Basic heading. select Remove Chromatic Aberration, then select full.

Always works for me in straightening things up.

You can to use the manual heading to get into the transform settings, but I find they can be a bit coarse.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
I was not at home when I replied, but it seems the old memory is still intact!

I have LR 5.7, if I select Lens Correction in the Develop Module.

Under the Basic heading. select Remove Chromatic Aberration, then select full.

Always works for me in straightening things up.

You can to use the manual heading to get into the transform settings, but I find they can be a bit coarse.
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I suppose that’s what I need a full auto button. But and a big but, whilst the ‘full’ button has given me success in the past for example straightening a horizon, whenever I give it something complex the results are comical to say the least.
 
The crop tool section is much easier for straightening a horizon.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
I was not at home when I replied, but it seems the old memory is still intact!

I have LR 5.7, if I select Lens Correction in the Develop Module.

Under the Basic heading. select Remove Chromatic Aberration, then select full.

Always works for me in straightening things up.

You can to use the manual heading to get into the transform settings, but I find they can be a bit coarse.
Click to expand...

The 'full' button just gives you vertical and horizontal corrections - nothing to do with CA, which you select separately.
 
Don't know if just selecting full does that, as I said in my post, I always select Remove Chromatic Aberration first.

So no idea why you say it is nothing to do with CA.
 
Chromatic abration is the inability of all wave lengths of light to focus on the same point and results in purple or green fringing so has nothing to do with perspective corrections.

I have tried photoshop and used the skew tool. Now whether or not it was the right tool to use it has worked for my image.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
Don't know if just selecting full does that, as I said in my post, I always select Remove Chromatic Aberration first.

So no idea why you say it is nothing to do with CA.
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Try selecting Full without ticking the CA box next time - the same perspective corrections will happen, but your image will retain its fringing.
 
Are you happy to lose a lot of your image?

Just had a quick go in DXO - you lose way too much and the image quality of the corrected areas is terrible because of the stretching/distortion required (and it auto-crops most of the image away to keep to the original image proportions).

Nice image BTW.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Are you happy to lose a lot of your image?
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Not ideally no, what are you thinking? I’m fine with the falling backwards look. That was intentional. It’s more the left/right balance if that makes sense?
 
This was the result. :p

Brazo_DxO.jpg

Don't get what's wrong with the left/right sides of your image?
 
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