Too Much Distortion - Is a Better 35mm Lens the Answer?

Two_In

Two_In

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Andrew
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I use my 35mm lens to photograph my paintings. But it always distorts/bends the edges of the paintings. Not so bad if un-framed, I just crop. But if the painting is framed it's definitely visible. I can do a certain amount in Photoshop to counter the bending, but there's still quite a bit of distortion. I use the 35mm for larger paintings - I have limited space in my studio. I use my 60mm for smaller paintings, which doesn't distort. Can I eliminate the distortion with a better lens? Maybe better Photoshopping would do it?

My lens: Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 35MM 1:1.8G
 
Two_In said:
That's so obvious now. Thanks. I won't tell you how I was doing it before - LOL.
Click to expand...
As the saying goes "every day is a school day".

Glad it helped :)
 
Photoshops lens correction filter is pretty good in my experience, I'm supprised it cant do a half decent job. Are you getting dead square with the painting?
 
Also, leave some extra room around the painting in your photograph; there is less distortion towards the center. And lens correction also causes cropping of the edges. If you can't compose the images loose enough when taking them, then add canvas to it prior to doing the lens correction.

Edit to add:
The Nikon 28mm or 35mm f/1.8 G lenses will have about half the barrel distortion that your DX lens has (1.86%). The Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art has the lowest distortion of all in that range... about 30% of your DX lens (-.59% vs -1.94%). The Nikon 50mm 1.8 G is at -.49% and costs about 1/4 of the Sigma art lens. The Nikon 50mm 1.8 D is even better at only -.2%, and cheaper yet; but it won't autofocus on your camera.
 
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I believe I'm right in saying that macro lenses produce less curvature. I'm not a Nikon shooter, so have no idea if there's a 35mm macro available for your camera.
 
Make sure that your camera is straight. 35mm isn't that wide and as long as the lens is pointed straight at the picture the lines should be straight.

If you point the camera up or down at the painting then you are going to get converging lines.
 
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