keystoning

[Shinnen]

Hi,
My name is John. I'm new here, and to photography. You probably get this question a lot, but I want to correct my photographs of buildings to compensate for their appearance of leaning backward. I tried the GimpShop (which along with photoshop, that I don't have, seem to be the two most popular software options) but couldn't really get the hang of it. I'm using a Sony Cyber-shot 4.1 megapixels.
... john

 

[LeftyRodriguez]

Man, it's too bad you couldn't get it to work with The Gimp and you don't have Photoshop, because skew/perspective transforms make it a snap. I'm not sure what other options their are, but if you ever get a copy of photoshop, there are plenty of great tutorials online.

 

[Shinnen]

Thanks ... john

 

[Mike_E]

What you are experiencing comes from having the camera at an angle to true vertical. This makes the top (if the camera is leaning back) of the frame further away from your subject than the bottom and hence smaller. This gives the "keystoning" and it's better to just have the camera in the proper prospective than try fixing it later.

Failing this look into the transform function in photoshop. If gimp has it look for tutorials on it there.

There are a series of books you should read (a touchstone of photographers coming of age if you like) by Ansel Adams starting with Camera and Lens. They are about View cameras but the knowledge you gain on general photography will be more than worth your while. You can buy them used (he's dead and won't miss the royalties) and every photographer should have a set in his/her library.

 

[Shinnen]

Hi Mike,
"This makes the top (if the camera is leaning back) of the frame further away from your subject than the bottom and hence smaller" I wasn't aware it was that simple. Makes sense though. But short of getting onto higher ground somehow, there's probably not much I can do with my camera (Sony Cybershot). Right? Thanks for the reference. Can I assume this is a good basic primer? I know NOTHING about photography.