How to manually fix distortion?
Hi all,
New user here with Pro version of 21. So far I'm really liking it but I've hit a stumbling block. I have 1000's of images in JPG format (ie no metadata etc) and I want to correct the barrel distortion present in a good few of them. When I go to the lens correction tool everything is greyed out. I cannot select 'generic' as the instructions say as there's no way to access the dropdown menu...
How do I fix this kind of thing in COP?
Ideally I don't want to round-trip into other software as I have tons of file to do and certainly don't want to convert them to huge DNGs etc.
Many thanks.
-
The lens correction tool works with RAW files only, not with JPGs
0 -
Oh really.... Blimey that seems like a major feature to miss out. It's a bit ironic that ON1 photo 'RAW' actually does allow you to fix distortion in jpg's too... I guess I'll go back to that then.
Thanks anyway.
0 -
Well, C1 is primarily a RAW converter, and I guess distortion correction is something that is applied early in the image processing pipeline to keep the effects on the final output as low as possible.
0 -
A jpg camera file from a camera will already have any available lens correction burned into it. (As far as distortion is concerned.)
To make any other changes to the appearance will require the use of a pixel editor of some sort - probably something that offers facility like Photoshop or Affinity Photo that offer all sort of manipulation tools that can be applied to what one might generically term "art work".
If On1 has the ability to push pixels around in jpg files like Photoshop it sounds like you may still be able to make good use of it.
0 -
A jpg camera file from a camera will already have any available lens correction burned into it. (As far as distortion is concerned.)
Nope. On many cameras it is an optional feature and often not enabled by default. There are a few brands that rely heavily on forced distortion (and also usually vignetting) correction and (for some or all lenses) do not allow the correction to be disabled at all (for JPGs, sometimes even for RAWs). However, at least so far this is not the majority of cameras or brands (yet... unfortunately, software correction has become more and more popular and is obviously fairly often now already included in the design of lenses).
0 -
Markus,
I will take your word for that but my experience with my cameras shooting RAW + Jpg is that, IF the camera manufacturer has any lens distortion data it will be applied to the jpg file. At that point it is burned into to the pixels and an editor without any "pixel distorting" software (like a mesh function for example) will have limited option for doing anything with lens distortion on that file - not the least because what is available has already been applied. So any additional correction would be applied on top of existing corrections.
There might be other things - Peripheral Illumination Correction for example - but I don't recall seeing distortion correction choices that can be applied to jpg output from the camera.
Maybe it is something that only applies for some manufacturers?
0 -
On any DSLR (with an optical viewfinder) distortion correction is typically optional (resulting in OVF image and final image not aligning). I know that on most Nikons of the last decade (the brand I use the most) it can be switched on or off in the menu, though. On mirrorless cameras, distortion correction is typically obligatory, but can be switched off (Nikon, Canon, and also Sony afaik), but not necessarily for all lenses (Nikon, Sony for some kit zooms) and not at all with other brands (Fuji).
In any case: you're right, a JPG is always a fully processed bitmap image. That includes distortion correction (if applied) as well as any other processing (like vignetting correction, CA removal, denoise and most important of all sharpening). A JPG is the result of the processing pipeline with all steps applied, while a RAW is always at the opposite end of that process.
0 -
Hi Guy's,
This is interesting. For me, I find that the distortion is probably something I want to correct for aesthetic reasons as opposed to a correction applied by the camera at shoot time. For example, I'm currently working with a lot of very old images that were shot as JPG's, as well as some scans of old 35mm slides from the 50's and 60's that my dad took. These may have, for example, an horizon that has pronounced curvature to it. I'd like to straighten it out and in ON1 I can just go to the distortion tool and use a slider to get rid of it. I don't think of it as 'pushing pixels' like photoshop but more like applying a very mild 'sphereize' effect. Similar to COP's keystone fix by 'rotating' the image in pseudo 3d.
It's not a deal breaker as nowadays all my own shots are in RAW format and all Fuji, so COP is by a very long margin the best processing engine for them. It's just that I don't like jumping from one package to the other where the library is handled in a different way. There's just no perfect package... I love COPs ability to get the best out of my Fuji files but I get really frustrated when I can't put the library on the left and tools on the right. I love ON1's amazing ability to add layers with effects like photoshop, but it lets me down with it's initial processing of the RAW, which is of course paramount.... Ho hum... Perhaps I'll go back to Apple Photos :-) At least now that we have 'Raw Power' it's more like Aperture used to be.... Ah, the good old days..
Cheers
0 -
Thanks for explaining the background in more detail, Roger.
Let me start with: yes, Apple Photos has improved a lot over the recent years, but I'd still consider it far away from any "pro" solution, including the long abandoned (and still dearly missed) Aperture. To be fair though: Aperture did not offer distortion correction.
Personally, I went with C1 because it allows me to disable any lens correction the camera may want to force on me, giving me access to the actual raw performance of the lens. However, given the amount of requests for all kinds of lens correction profiles here, I am aware that with this attitude I am part of a minority group ;)
I'm afraid, there is no other solution for your issue than using an external image editor if you want to stick to C1 as the photo library. It is not an uncommon way to use both C1 and for example PS (my choice) in parallel, the latter for more advanced editing tasks. PS certainly does offer all kinds of lens correction (including distortion) for anything it's able to open. So does Affinity photo, if you don't want to send subscription fees to Adobe anymore. And probably Pixelmator Pro, too, but I haven't used that for years, so I am not completely sure.
Plus, of course, the solution you already have, ON1.
0 -
Hi Markus,
Ha! The Apple Photos comment was a joke.... I wouldn't really use it. Having said that, 'Raw Power' was written by one of the Aperture team and can work as a stand-alone editor that has full access to the Photos library... It's not quite as good at processing Fuji as COP though...
However, yes, I am a veteran Photoshop user (I've been a 'digital illustrator' for 30 odd years now) so maybe that's the way to go...All the best!
0
Post ist für Kommentare geschlossen.
Kommentare
10 Kommentare