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28 Comments on My wide angle lens makes the refrigerator curved!
I'd go back and see if you can get a better shot. Unless the kitchen is tiny you should be able to get more in the frame than just the one wall. I corrected the skew, lightened it a bit, took the magnets off the fridge and took the date off. I don't like when agents use the date stamp. It is so sad to see a home stamped January in the middle of the summer.
Before using skew in PS (any version), I would recommend rotating the photo so that it's level horizontally. Otherwise the perspective gets thrown off. You can also use a grid while you make your adjustments by going to the "view" menu, selecting "show" and then "grid".
You could use warp under Edit>Transform>Warp which would let you counter the barrel distortion.
You might want to stay away from a filter or plug-in that does this automatically depending upon how picky you are. How the photo is composed, what's in the foreground and background and the general perspective of the photo will determine how noticeable the effect. The distortion in your original photo is more pronounced on the left side, because the refrigerator is closer to you than the edge of the counter on the right side of the photo. A standard correction from a plug-in may not work well in all cases.
Maureen Bray, thanks for advice. The welcome mat was a hint from someone on Active Rain. It is neat, I think, and does change from state to state.
Maureen Henry, thanks for your help. I also hate magnets on the refrigerator. I never thought about the date stamp, however. Your photo looks better but the wall still curves. This kitchen is a weird shape with angles so you can't stand in a corner and get all of it.
Darrel, thanks. Sound like you got yourself a job at the Photography group!! You definitely sound knowledeable!
Gary, I believe you are right. We need a larger room for the wide angle lens or a straight on view at least. Thanks for your help.
I agree with Gene. It is the lens. Sorry, but it isn't very good and not even a very wide angle. You can correct 'leaning walls' or other skewed straight lines in Photoshop fairly easily, but to have to correct and then warp them would be a total waste of time.
It would be well worth your money and a big time-saver to get a better point and shoot, or just hire a pro.:)
Good Luck,
Susie
Thanks, Susie L.
Just another example of "you get what you pay for". I need to purchase better.
I have to tell you I know it's the new trendy thing to use the ULTRA WIDE LENS cameras but I think agents are getting carried away with these photos. I recently emailed my client a listing report and the photo of the living room looked like the room size was 20x20 (it was about 10x12, BIG DIFFERENCE) When we got to the property my client was outraged with me that I was being dishonest and the listing agent is a liar by taking these photos.
I still have a headache from this appointment.
Save your time for what you do best, selling houses! There are services who will fix these kinds of problems with listing photos. They are quick and very reasonbly priced. Check out http://lightbrightlistings.com.
If you have the time and the software, you could also consider combining a few photos into a "panorama" like they do for landscape shots. In that case you would need to be able to time your exposure so you could take the photos without a flash in order for the lighting to remain constant. Probably more effort than you want to put into one photograph of a kitchen, but it certainly is a challenge if anybody wanted to take it up.
I've done this for non-business photos. Sometimes to get the height, you need to take them in portrait...
Other than that, as others have said, you'll likely have to invest a few hundred dollars in a good lens OR get the Photoshop Elements software for about $80 for the latest version (7).
You can also get Photoshop Elements 7 bundled with Adobe Premier Elements 7 (The Video Equivalent of Photoshop Elements) for under $100 after rebate at Costco (until Halloween 2008).
Just search Costco.com for "photoshop".
Oh yeah. And any time you are doing timed exposures or planning on doing any stitching, a tripod and a cable release (or remote trigger) are a must.