Straightening structures

[Merlin5]

Hi guys. I took a photo but I can't straighten the staircase, railings, or the column behind, they're all skewy. Stairs lean right and the column leans left.

Well, I can straighten the column but it loses the way it tapers and just makes it straight and flat looking. I've tried all the Transform options in Lightroom (auto, full, vertical, guided, etc) but can't improve it.

As a street photographer I want to be able to take shots like this but they're basically unusable if I can't straighten them. I'm wondering if it's to do with using my Sigma 16mm lens (24mm FF equivalent) and if I'd have more success using a less wide angle lens such as if I bought the Sigma 30mm (45 FF equivalent)?

Here's the photo unprocessed and uncropped so far, I just exported the raw as a jpg and uploaded it so you can see it.

1 London Bridge — Postimages

postimg.cc

 

[Box Brownie]

Hmmmm!

Can you clarify.....is the stairway 'normal' or is it actually at an angle to the left hand wall i.e. at 90 degrees or not?

 

[Mr Perceptive]

You have left yourself very little 'wiggle' room, it you concentrate first on straightening the verticals (you can always add a bit of taper back in - as I have done here), you will see that you have to crop heavily to remove the blank space at the bottom of the image



Content Aware Fill could help in the missing parts of the image - might make a mess of it though

 

[Merlin5]

Hmmmm!

Can you clarify.....is the stairway 'normal' or is it actually at an angle to the left hand wall i.e. at 90 degrees or not?

That's the thing, I can't remember but I assume it must be absolutely straight as I can't imagine it sloping like in the photo.

You have left yourself very little 'wiggle' room, it you concentrate first on straightening the verticals (you can always add a bit of taper back in - as I have done here), you will see that you have to crop heavily to remove the blank space at the bottom of the image

View attachment 332378

Content Aware Fill could help in the missing parts of the image - might make a mess of it though

Thanks. I got exactly the same as you did when I used transform. But the first part of the steps at the top where the man is about to walk onto are still sloping to our right or his left.
Do you think using a longer focal length would avoid the angle distortion? I have similar problems when photographing architecture, with buildings sloping. I can often correct those but sometimes not, and I think it depends on my distance away as well. But I can't be using a tilt shift lens with quick grab street photography. Nor would I want to spend the kind of money a tilt shift lens costs, lol!

 

[john.margetts]

When you use wide angle lenses you need to be very aware of how you are holding the camera. Actually, this applies to normal angle lenses as well, but not to the same degree. The camera needs to be completely horizontal - horizontal left to right and horizontal front to back. To avoid distorting the steps you need to be square to the steps.

Software will cure one parallax error but is likely to make other errors worse in the process. Software is not magic. If you canot keep the camera horizontal and square you will probably have to live with the distortion - or perhaps make a feature of it.

 

[d00d]

Don't

... you will probably have to live with the distortion - or perhaps make a feature of it.

Yay celebrate it.

 

[d00d]

I thought the Gimp perspective tool could fix anything ... till I saw this.

 

[Box Brownie]

I did a search for similar images, there are a couple/few on Alamy, and they clearly IMO show that the stairs are indeed angled away from your viewpoint left to right.

Furthermore, if you zoom in on the LHS of the steps there is an obvious right angle corner showing on the edge of the stone steps........thus showing they were 'square cut' but fitted off square. In other words straightening the steps is wrong!

 

[droj]

I feel that you're trying to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted to a large extent.

My philosophy is that if I go out with a w/a lens, I look for w/a scenes, and use what the lens gives me - I may well adjust my taking position to suit. I don't bang away then complain later that the lens hasn't done what I wanted, and scrape the barrel for 'solutions'. You have to see as the lens sees - which shouldn't be awfully difficult since you're looking through it, aren't you? Isn't that what a viewfinder's for?

All doesn't have to be straight & square at all times - angles & perspective can be dynamic picture elements, and even if they're byproducts of circumstance, you can welcome them.

Control is important, but balance it with freedom. It's meant to be fun!

 

[droj]

But here's a quick twiddle ... including some tonal adjustment, the original seemed a bit pale & lacking contrast - the sky reflection is an important element. Also note that having just one edge of the column vertical acts as an anchor for everything, and the blank sky area top right has been much reduced, so the image looks a bit more co-ordinated ...

 

[Merlin5]

I feel that you're trying to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted to a large extent.

My philosophy is that if I go out with a w/a lens, I look for w/a scenes, and use what the lens gives me - I may well adjust my taking position to suit. I don't bang away then complain later that the lens hasn't done what I wanted, and scrape the barrel for 'solutions'. You have to see as the lens sees - which shouldn't be awfully difficult since you're looking through it, aren't you? Isn't that what a viewfinder's for?

All doesn't have to be straight & square at all times - angles & perspective can be dynamic picture elements, and even if they're byproducts of circumstance, you can welcome them.

Control is important, but balance it with freedom. It's meant to be fun!

Bit of an odd reply really. I wasn't complaining, I was asking for help and advice. I often look at buildings through the viewfinder with this 16mm lens and it often slants them to the right or left. That's why I was asking if I'd have been better off with a less wide angled lens. Thanks for having a twiddle at the image, I appreciate that but I wasn't asking for tonal adjustment. I would have done all that in post myself.

I did a search for similar images, there are a couple/few on Alamy, and they clearly IMO show that the stairs are indeed angled away from your viewpoint left to right.

Furthermore, if you zoom in on the LHS of the steps there is an obvious right angle corner showing on the edge of the stone steps........thus showing they were 'square cut' but fitted off square. In other words straightening the steps is wrong!

Thanks Box, that's very interesting and encouraging to hear!

 

[Box Brownie]

@Merlin5

This is AFAIK a picture taken from the reverse direction i.e. going down and they look aweful and I wonder how many might have come a cropper on such stairs...... certainly need those banisters.

Architecturally "design/form over function"

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[realspeed]

Anyone know of a good firm of builders to help out Lee with his leaning building?

 

[Merlin5]

@Merlin5

This is AFAIK a picture taken from the reverse direction i.e. going down and they look aweful and I wonder how many might have come a cropper on such stairs...... certainly need those banisters.

Architecturally "design/form over function"

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That's very interesting, there's a photo there exactly like mine with the sloping steps! I'll be going back there, possibly tomorrow, I have to take a second look in person. Weird, I walked up those steps and don't recall being aware of any sloping. Maybe I was drunk and didn't notice.

 

[gramps]

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Twitter
Tim Dunn on Twitter: "The WORST steps in London. Queen's Walk on Thames Path, London Bridge. Angled & slippery & stupid

 

[CavGez]

This is exactly the sort of thread I enjoy finding on this site - I feel like I've learnt something. So cheers for that.

 

[Grumps1974]

I am by no means skilled with Photoshop but this is the result from Camera Raw. Selected Geometry, full adjustment and then constrain crop. Not perfect but at least the steps slope in the same direction and the building is upright.. I guess that one of the prices paid is that dimensions of the building etc have been changed

 

[Merlin5]

This is exactly the sort of thread I enjoy finding on this site - I feel like I've learnt something. So cheers for that.

I am by no means skilled with Photoshop but this is the result from Camera Raw. Selected Geometry, full adjustment and then constrain crop. Not perfect but at least the steps slope in the same direction and the building is upright.. I guess that one of the prices paid is that dimensions of the building etc have been changed

I did a look up shot of that column and it seems to have turned out well. The perspective looks a bit like standing on a horizontal structure in space looking towards earth, lol.