My pillars are leaning!

[Mcphisto]

I took this picture using 3 hdr pics of my local church and stitched them together using cs3. But as you can see the pillars on either side are leaning and makes the picture look terrible. Anyone know how I could fix this? A link to a tutorial would be great as I am only a beginner on cs3.

Many thanks.

Heres a link to the pic as it didnt show when I inserted it from above. http://www.zooomr.com/z/photos/zoom/3357701/size-16/

[another view]

I've done it in CS, and it involves something like Perspective > Distort and pulling the corners out. Sorry I can't be of more help but my Photoshop computer is out of commission at the moment.

I'd highly recommend Scott Kelby's Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers - the title should be something like that, it's a series for all versions of Photoshop. He showed how to do it in the CS book but the commands might be different, and there may be a much better way of doing it now with CS3.

[Mcphisto]

Thanks for the reply. I have Martin Evenings CS3 for Photographers. I will look in there. I appreciate your help.

Mcphisto

[MarcusK]

Well the perspective is found in Image>Transform>Perspective
However i am not so sure that this will be the best option for you!

Try also Filter>Distort>Lens Correction there might be a couple of options there that will be of help!

For future reference,in case it applies in your case.... the distortion happens when shooting at wide angles. You might wanna make sure you get the straight pillars while shooting!

If there are any extra specifics required, I will be more than happy to oblige!

Nice photo though!

Marc

[freygr]

I took this picture using 3 hdr pics of my local church and stitched them together using cs3. But as you can see the pillars on either side are leaning and makes the picture look terrible. Anyone know how I could fix this? A link to a tutorial would be great as I am only a beginner on cs3.

Many thanks.

Heres a link to the pic as it didnt show when I inserted it from above.

Perspective correction was not applied. That is one think is included in the panorama program I use Smoky City Designs: Panorama Factory, but it's a Windows only program

[another view]

For future reference,in case it applies in your case.... the distortion happens when shooting at wide angles. You might wanna make sure you get the straight pillars while shooting!

The only way to do this is to have the camera perfectly level (up and down), and to use a lens with no distortion. Both of these don't always work in the real world, but the closer you can get to level with the camera the easier the adjustments will be later. In this shot that may have meant about 20' or so of scaffolding to get the camera high enough to be level, and that would change the composition of the shot as well.

[fx101]

Four words: Pano head, and tilt-shift.

[jgredline]

Wish I could help, but this is way over my head..but I am reading along trying to learn..

[another view]

I use one of these bubble levels mounted in the hotshoe on the camera to make sure the camera is level. Where you'll run into problems wiht pillars that are leaning - or any other straight line that is at an angle and shouldn't be - is when the camera is pointed up or down. The more the angle, the more you'll see that effect. This level seems expensive but it's worth the money. There are less expensive ones that may be just as good.

What I meant about the 20' scaffolding is that if you had the camera 5' off the ground and level, you wouldn't have most of the ceiling in the shot. The choices are:

1) Shoot with the camera level and lose the ceiling (bad choice).
2) Raise the camera high enough to get eveything you want. In this case, that would probably mean halfway between the floor and ceiling (could be a lot more than 20') but that's almost never a practical solution and will change the look of the shot.
3) Correct in Photoshop.

I've done it a couple of times, and I think seeing a little bit of lean to the columns might make it actually look a little more natural. But, you could get rid of most of it and improve the shot. Hope this helps...

[Mcphisto]

I had the camera tripod mounted, perfectly level, and just rotated it a bit either side to get the panorama I needed. I could have gone higher I suppose but that option is gone now as i took the pic whilst visiting family in the UK.

I remember reading about software for this specific problem, I think it was called XSO but that cant be right as I Googled it and nothing come up.

Thanks for all the replies. :-)


Mcphisto

[another view]

I think it was called XSO but that cant be right

Ooh - so close... DXO

[Mcphisto]

Haha...Thanks again!! But as your were typing I did what Marcus K said, Filter> distort> Lens correction. Worked a treat! Heres the new pic...

http://www.zooomr.com/z/photos/zoom/3367428/size-16/

Ive already sent it to my Father who is going to hang it in the Vestry. (He is the Deacon at the Church).

Thanks once again everyone :thumbsup:

[another view]

Very nice results, too! Good job.

[MarcusK]

Nice result indeed... Glad to have been of service!

Cheers!