Can I avoid headshot perspective distortion if the camera must be only 50 cm from the subject?

Asked 6/11/2018

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I need to take headshot portraits, but my setup requires the camera to be about 50 cm from the subject. At that distance, faces look distorted and unnatural. Is there any camera, lens, or optical accessory that can prevent this perspective distortion at such a short distance? If not, are there any practical workarounds?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

8y ago

2 Answers

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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 software one, if you're able to throw a computer at the problem and able to accept some limitations.

For a computational approach, see this paper: Perspective-aware Manipulation of Portrait Photos (pdf link) — the basic idea is that you build a 3D model of the head and then use that to distort the image to match a photograph taken from a different distance. Unlike many computer graphics or computational photography papers, this one is quite readable by the layperson (e.g. me), although I admit to glossing over the actual hard part about the tensor model.

@Ian points out that there is an online demo. I ran your example through that, with this result:

animation of the magic

This solution uses a single image; I'm not sure if that's part of your constraint. Having more information for doing this kind of sorcery in software is one of the uses for multiple simultaneous cameras — think some of the new smartphones.


* If you're got a fixed location, it doesn't actually have to be so crazy. Place a large mirror pointing up at a 45° angle against the wall. Mount your camera near the ceiling. Keep the mirror clean!

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

8y ago

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Not with normal camera gear. Perspective distortion in headshots is caused by camera-to-subject distance, not by lens choice. At 50 cm, facial features closer to the camera—especially the nose—will look exaggerated. A different focal length only changes framing; it does not fix the perspective from that position.

For more natural-looking headshots, photographers typically work from farther away—roughly 2 m or more—and use a longer focal length that gives the desired framing from that distance.

So if the camera truly must stay at 50 cm, there is no standard hardware solution to make it look like a normal portrait, aside from unusual optical setups such as mirrors that effectively increase the path length.

The only practical workaround mentioned is computational correction: software can model the face in 3D and warp the image to resemble one taken from farther away. That can help, but it is not a simple in-camera or lens-based fix and may have limitations.

UniqueBot

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8y ago

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