#Camera lens distortion portraiture how to#
How to minimise lens distortionĪs mentioned, you shouldn't get OCD about lens distortion and try to eradicate it altogether. It tends to be less of a problem on better quality lenses, and is also harder to spot at more conservative focal lengths. Use a cheap and nasty lens and zoom in on some edges and you can often spot chromatic aberration, or colour fringing. Chromatic aberrationĪpart from distortion to the shape of objects and lines and edges, lens distortion can cause fringing. Sometimes you have to look hard to spot this effect, but it's pretty obvious if you are shooting a rectangular shape, such as a window frame. This effect, were lines do the opposite and bend inwards, is a common problem with longer telephoto lenses. Indeed barrel distortion helps to give fisheye lenses their distinctive look. Barrel distortionĪgain, this is easily spotted when using a more extreme wide-angle lens – you'll notice straight lines at the edges of the picture 'bowing out,' like the shape of a barrel. This relative lack of distortion is one of the reason that prime 85mm lenses are considered the 'perfect' portrait lens, for example. 24mm, will reveal less distortion as it's easier for makers to compensate for distortion when they only have one focal length to worry about.
![camera lens distortion portraiture camera lens distortion portraiture](https://camerajabber.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Nikon_D859_vs_Fujifilm_GFX_50S_015_D850_chairportrait_lowres-1280x793.jpg)
![camera lens distortion portraiture camera lens distortion portraiture](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d6/d7/ba/d6d7ba47ec9b7d2ab9b78096c93b06e2.jpg)
The wider angled the lens, the more curved that straight lines will appear, as you can see with the distorted edges in the image below, taken with an otherwise good-quality, 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom.Ī prime lens with a similar focal length, e.g.
![camera lens distortion portraiture camera lens distortion portraiture](https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2019/06/undistortfeat-800x420.jpg)
One of the easiest ways to spot lens distortion is to attach a wide-angle lens, or shoot at the wide end of a zoom lens. Photography Foundation taught by Michael FreemanĪward-winning photographer, author and teacher Michael Freeman teaches you the foundations of photography from framing to lighting and beyond.