When shooting real estate photography, a good rule-of-thumb is to keep your verticals straight up and down. In other words, you typically don’t want things slanting in (or out) at the top, or the bottom. You want them, well…vertical.
Oftentimes, this can be controlled by just making sure your camera is level when you shoot – that it’s not pointed up or down, or tilted side-to-side. Your lens will also have an effect on how the perspective in your photos looks. But this isn’t about shooting photos; it’s about how to fix them. At least fixing the verticals.
And we’re going to do it with Photoshop Elements, as that’s a program a lot of agents seem to use.
In our main photo, you can see that both the left and right sides are slanted in at the bottom. This is what is known as ‘converging verticals’ - which is what we want to avoid. And, it might look better if things were straight up and down.
So, let’s fix it.
After you open your photo, the first thing you want to do is turn your ‘Grid’ on, which will give you a good visual reference for what’s actually straight. To do this, just go to VIEW> GRID. I’m using a Mac, so hopefully the PC version of Photoshop Elements has a similar Toolbar setup.
There are different ways you can go about straightening your verticals, all of which are extremely easy. And all of which will be useful at different times. So, we’ll briefly touch on a couple of them.
Method #1 – PERSPECTIVE: One of the most obvious ways to fix ‘converging verticals’ might be to just adjust the perspective of the image. To do this, go to IMAGE> TRANSFORM> PERSPECTIVE
After you’ve selected PERSPECTIVE, your image will have a ‘bounding-box’ around it with little square ‘handles’ in each corner and in the middle of the top, bottom, and sides. Just click and drag any one of those little handles to adjust your photo accordingly.
And you only need to drag one of the handles to straighten it up, as both sides are affected equally - as it is adjusting the overall perspective.
But on this particular photo (above), when using PERSPECTIVE, notice how even though the left side is now straight, the right side is still a bit slanted. So, maybe one of the other methods of adjustment might work better in this example.
Method #2 – SKEW: Using the SKEW tool is very similar to PERSPECTIVE, but gives you more control. And it might work better for our particular photo. First go to IMAGE> TRANSFORM> SKEW
Just like before, you will see the same little ‘handles‘ for adjusting your image. However, this time they work independent from each other. So, you will need to adjust each side separately. In this case, using my grid as a reference, I just dragged the bottom corners until it looked pretty straight on both sides.
Using just SKEW tool, the verticals don’t look too bad. And many times, this might be all you need to do to your photo. But there are still other options you may want to try.
Method #3 – CORRECT CAMERA DISTORTION: This is meant to do exactly what it says, correct camera distortion - from things like your camera’s lens. Plus, there are other adjustments in here you may want to try. So, go to FILTER> CORRECT CAMERA DISTORTION
Here you will see a completely different looking screen. But the correction controls on the right are self-explanatory. And they will give you a lot more control.
In our original image, if you look closer, you will see a slight bit of ‘bowing’ going on – especially around the doorjamb going into the parlor. This is known as ‘barrel distortion,’ which is caused by the wide-angle lens that was used when the photo was taken. But to correct this, just use the REMOVE DISTORTION slider until it looks right.
And though we found out using PERSPECTIVE alone will not necessarily get both sides straight, you may still want to try adjusting it slightly - just to keep the corrections a little more uniform. Then, if need be, once you’ve made your adjustments using CORRECT CAMERA DISTORTION, you can always go back into SKEW, or something else, and refine it a little more.
After your corrections, you will most likely see blank areas around the edge of your image from the adjustments made. So, you obviously need to get rid of that. And you can do it by either enlarging your image, or cropping it.
To enlarge it, go to IMAGE> TRANSFORM> FREE TRANSFORM. You will again see the little control ‘handles’ you are now familiar with. Just drag them until your photo completely fills the image window. But make sure ‘Constrain Proportions’ is checked, so as not to distort the proportions. When you get it where you want, just hit Enter.
To crop your image, use the RECTANGLE MARQUEE tool, found in your left toolbar. Just drag a rectangle around the portion of the photo you want to keep, and then go to IMAGE> CROP. It will automatically resize your image to your selected area.
And... voilà! The final image, with the verticals looking pretty straight, and the slight barrel distortion removed. That’s about all there is to it.
I’m sure I made it sound a whole lot more difficult than it really is. But I tried to cover everything for the benefit of those with little-to-no experience working with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
But, give it a try. It’s extremely easy. And for the sake of your photos, do them a favor and…straighten up!
CPG Tours
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Thanks Michael - we all learn from the step by step analysis you provide. 
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HEY! Thanks for the tip. I discovered my PS CS2 has all the same tools as well. Hadn't looked for them before!!!