25
votes
How can I get headshot portraits with pleasing, natural perspective if I'm constrained to a short distance?
There is no hardware solution, short of some crazy* arrangement of mirrors to extend the actual optical distance. That's because perspective distortion solely related to distance, but there might be a ...
- 143k
23
votes
Is it normal for RAW files to have lens distortion? How best to deal with it?
Is this normal for RAW images?
Yes, it is normal.
Based on my experience with Canon cameras with different lenses, the RAW image remains uncorrected w.r.t. to the corresponding JPEG.
This means that ...
- 8,608
17
votes
How do cameras undistort photos?
Distortion is produced by the lens, not the sensor. So the distortion correction you describe is also referred to as lens correction.
There are different distortion models (equations). The ...
- 26.9k
15
votes
Accepted
What model does Lightroom use for lens correction?
Does anyone know if this software uses the Brown-Conrady model to achieve the lens correction?
Yes they do use those very common camera calibration coefficients. I added some copyable text versions ...
- 8,504
15
votes
How do I get rid of distortion in pictures of distant objects photographed with a telephoto lens?
Shoot early in day to avoid heat waves.
Or shoot from elevated position.
- 321
14
votes
What is the farthest a camera can see?
If you simply want visual examples with commonly available lenses and resolutions the webpage: "Guide to Identifying or Recognizing a Face: Resolution, Focal length, and Megapixels" has a number of ...
- 1,813
13
votes
Accepted
Why do people care about vignetting or distortion?
There are three major considerations that make lenses with less distortion, vignetting, or any other "correctable" aberrations more desirable for many photographers than correcting later in ...
- 175k
13
votes
Why do people care about vignetting or distortion?
Those have completely different impact.
Vignetting
Vignetting is a darkening of the corners or edges which depends on aperture and focal-length. In order to correct this in software, pixels around ...
- 103k
12
votes
Accepted
Why do drones capture images that are curved at edges?
Drone do not curve images. Camera lenses do. You can mount different types of cameras or lenses on a drone but many models now have their own built-in camera which usually incorporates a small fisheye ...
- 103k
12
votes
Accepted
Categorization of 14mm lens as rectilinear?
Unlike most other digital cameras, Panasonic micro four-thirds cameras record lens correction information (distortion and CA, iirc) into the EXIF information of their RAW files (and will bake in the ...
- 51.4k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between perspective distortion and barrel or pincushion distortion?
Perspective is determined by the position of the camera relative to the scene. When a camera position produces a perspective that makes an object or scene look different than we might expect it to ...
- 175k
12
votes
How can I get headshot portraits with pleasing, natural perspective if I'm constrained to a short distance?
Classic standards have always been more like 2 meters Minimum distance for portraits. 3 meters is common in professional studios, for even better perspective. Too little distance (like 1 meter) will ...
- 12.9k
9
votes
What makes these white stars appear black?
The stars aren't black; the spaces between them are. (or rather, dark blue)
The brighter bits between that dark ones are the defocussed stars. Due to the defocussing, they have grown in apparent size,...
- 7,151
9
votes
Accepted
How do I get rid of distortion in pictures of distant objects photographed with a telephoto lens?
This distortion is due to the sun shining on the water. The sun's heat warms the surface causing warm air to rise. Likely some water vapor mixed in. What happens is, different layers of different ...
- 38.7k
8
votes
Accepted
Lens correction in darktable when my lens isn't known?
Unfortunately, as of right now, darktable doesn't have a very good way of doing ad hoc distortion correction for a lens you don't have a lensfun profile for. The following is a dirty hack that may be ...
- 5,404
8
votes
Accepted
How does camera firmware obtain lens distortion correction parameters?
Micro Four Thirds (MFT) is a vendor-neutral platform that standardizes the information communicated between camera and lens. Lenses can inform the attached camera body some of their chromatic ...
- 32.3k
7
votes
Why don't smartphone cameras correct pincushion distortion automatically?
This type of distortion in the corners is one of the trade offs for having a rectilinear lens that can render a wide field of view that covers a spherical area into a flat rectangular image. If you ...
- 175k
7
votes
Categorization of 14mm lens as rectilinear?
More generally, why is there even a drop-down for me to choose between rectilinear and fisheye, given that it's purely a function of focal length, which is already an input? I must be missing ...
- 31.7k
7
votes
Focal length on Full frames and cropped sensors
If you take a photo of a FF camera and 75mm DX lens and compare that image with another shot of same subject made by a cropped camera and a 50mm lens what you will see ?
But to be able to see the "...
- 12.9k
7
votes
Accepted
How is focal length facial distortion different on an APS-C sensor compared to a full frame?
The facial deformations you are worried about are due to perspective distortion. Perspective is determined by one thing and one thing only: subject distance.
Here's an example of focal length ...
- 175k
7
votes
In photo taken with a prime lens, what is the cause of the "zoomed" bokeh appearance?
This is just an educated guess that I've never tested or seen specifically tested with lenses that have been highly corrected for field curvature and astigmatism, which are intimately related.
Most ...
- 175k
7
votes
Why is the person in the corner of this photo distorted?
It's a typical result of rectilinear projection with a very wide angle lens. It's compounded by the hand being much closer, relatively, than the face to the camera.
- 175k
7
votes
Is it normal for RAW files to have lens distortion? How best to deal with it?
Yes, this is normal. The raw file contains just the raw data from the sensor, with no processing of any sort done (plus metadata, previews, etc). The embedded previews and the JPG produced when you ...
- 5,138
6
votes
Why don't smartphone cameras correct pincushion distortion automatically?
The problem with the outline of the ball not being a circle is not a sign of pincushion or barrel distortion.
Indeed let us assume an idealised perfect lens. There is one focal point (the distance of ...
- 270
6
votes
Do the out of focus elements in this photo look normal?
There's nothing obviously wrong with the image. You've got a very narrow depth of field, so the grass in the foreground and background is out of focus, but that's not surprising if you were shooting ...
- 31.7k
6
votes
Categorization of 14mm lens as rectilinear?
The image with barrel distorsion is the actual image recorded by the camera in raw format.
The corrected image on top of it is the jpeg that the camera pre-processed (with knowledge that that ...
- 881
6
votes
Accepted
Why do I get converging vertical lines even when using a normal perspective lens?
The source of the distortion is the camera’s viewpoint. A combination of subject distance and the angle-of-view, delivered by the chosen focal length of the lens, produced the distortion. Your ...
- 38.7k
6
votes
How do i take a photo of an object perfectly vertical like a top view?
In order to get an orthographic view of your subject using a camera, you would need a telecentric lens. One requirement for a telecentric lens is that the width of the lens be at least as large as the ...
- 175k
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