OT Deforming a picture

[Anna Kettle]

I have a photo which was taken looking upwards to high on a wall and I want to deform it to get a picture looking straight on. Now it seems to me that there ought to be some software gizmo to do this but what is it called? Googling on picture deformation doesnt come up with anything useful

Anna

[Adrian C]

Google "Perspective Correction"

[Cicero]

========================================= Morphing - 'Morpheus', I think if you're using Windows.

Cic.

[Anna Kettle]

Ah! Thanks

Anna

[Tim Downie]

Most photo editing software will let you do this. Try "Gimp" which is free. Photofiltre (again free) can do this too. It's rather more basic but is also easier to use. (It's under the "edit/transform" sub menu).

[Tim S]

Anna Kettle coughed up some electrons that declared:

Gimp

can do reasonable perspective correction. Runs equally well on Linux and Windows and is free (and very very solid).

Cheers

Tim

[mark]

Hi Anna

Send it to me and I'll run it through photoshop and return.

mark

[Tim Downie]

Somewhat against the D-I-Y philosophy of the group though surely? ;-)

Tim

[Steve Firth]

Photoshop.

[mark]

Well that's you off her Christmas card list!

mark

[george (dicegeorge)]

is open source and works on windows macs and unix and does almost everything photoshop does.. so its worth learning as you can download it anywhere

tools/ transform tools /perspective

dont know how to do it though...

I'd start by drawing a box on it in a new layer which you want to be at right angles, then try various tranformation...

Anna Kettle wrote:

[george (dicegeorge)]

[Tim S]

Anna Kettle coughed up some electrons that declared:

Here you go Anna,

shows Gimp with a photo loaded and the correct tool (the depressed button on the top left window). Set the same settings in the middle left window ("corrective" mode is the crucial one), set teh grid (just click and drag corners about) in the main picture.

The aim is to line the grid lines up with things you believe should be parallel, eg the vertices of your building.

Hit "Transform" on the bottom left window - job done. Save file. CTRL-Z or "Undo" goes back if you don;t like it.

you Gimp for Windows - just run the installer. Better than anything else that's free, true open source, competently built for Windows as well and Linux and Mac. It's a bit like photoshop but with less plugins and rather less money!

Cheers

Tim

[John Stumbles]

The Gimp can do it - I often take photos off-axis so the flash doesn't glare back off reflective surfaces (or because I can't reach to get perpendicular to the object I'm photographing) and correct them with the gimp's perspective tool. See e.g the 'K' boots sign on

(though I think I got the aspect ratio wrong).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mm. Ive done this in Corel DRAW by importing a bitmap and stretching it a bit.

There is such software, and photoshop probably does what you want.

Or ask to borrow a 16mm lens next time ;-)

[Appelation Controlee]

The true answer is that this is impossible. You can counter the perspective effect - which is the solution offered by others - but the viewpoint (which is the basis of the question you actually asked) can't be altered.

[Adrian C]

True, but there are specialist camera lenses that can shift it. Only a few mm shifting or tilting the lens, but seems to make the difference for shots of buildings making verticals stand up.

[Anna Kettle]

Tim S -I have downloaded Gimp and successfully followed your directions. Thankyou!

mark - thanks for offering to do if for me but I expect I shall have to do it again so its best I learn to do it myself

TNP - I will be banging on your door :-)

Anna

[Tim S]

Anna Kettle coughed up some electrons that declared:

Now you're on a roll, here's some other cool things you can do with your photos:

1 - Fix colour cast, manually - or by picking known black, white or grey points in the picture. (Colours/Levels options) 2 - Sharpen (slightly) and blur images

3 - Non linearly alter the contrast, good for bringing out stuff in the shadows. (Colours/curves)

As well as all the obvious one, like cutting and cropping.

It's good for overlaying text too, if you want to annotate anything for your website.

The best general tip is: right click and hold over the picture - all relevant menus pop up and if the feature is available, it's in that menu somewhere.

Cheers

Tim

[Man at B&Q]

And virtually impenetrable to a new user, last time I looked. It helps if you know what you want to do and how to do it first. The help was useless for someone new to this kind of software, never having used photoshop either.

MBQ