Can you correct the perspective distortion in wide-angle real estate photos?
Asked 7/7/2021
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I often see house listings shot with very wide-angle lenses, which can make rooms look stretched or make objects near the edges look odd. Is there a way to "normalize" these images afterward so they look more natural, and what are the trade-offs?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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Most real estate photography is done with a rectilinear (ultra-)wide angle lenses. Rectilinear lenses keep straight lines straight, but distort features away from the central view. Wide angle rectilinear lenses are unkind to people away from the center of the image. Photoshop has a magical filter called Adaptive Wide Angle which will make objects (people) look normal when shot with a wide angle lens, but straight lines will be curved. Better to make Aunt Mavis look trimmer than having straight lines. However, real estate images usually look better with straight lines being straight. You need to make compromises when trying to project 3D space on a flat projection plane.
If you can project the image on a spherical surface, you can view minimally distorted images. Disneyland had Circle-Vision 360 which used a cylindrical screen - pretty nifty at the time.
Originally by user98537. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user98537
5y ago
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Usually, yes—but only to a point. Most real estate photos are made with rectilinear wide-angle lenses, not fisheyes. Rectilinear lenses keep straight lines straight, which is why they’re common for interiors, but they stretch objects and faces near the frame edges because they’re trying to map a very wide 3D view onto a flat image.
You can partially correct the look in post-processing. Tools like Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide Angle or Lightroom’s Geometry/Upright controls can make a room or subjects look more natural. But there’s a trade-off: if you reduce the stretched look of people or objects, straight architectural lines may start to curve or otherwise look less natural. If you preserve straight walls and door frames, edge subjects may still look distorted.
So the answer is: you can improve it, but you can’t perfectly “undo” all wide-angle perspective effects from a single flat photo. Some compromise is unavoidable when projecting 3D space onto 2D.
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