help with fisheye

Ruke · Feb 24, 2007

ok i was told by someone that works at london drugs that you can take multiple pictures of an area, and then edit them together to give it a fisheye look.
is this possible and do any of you know how to do it?

Odin_aa · Feb 24, 2007

Sounds as though you would stitch them together in a pano-style photograph. As far as "Giving it a fisheye look" that would mean using photoshop to alter the edges of the image using either perspective distortion or simply distortion.

A simpler method would simply be to use a fisheye.

dtownley1 · Feb 24, 2007

Ruke said:
ok i was told by someone that works at london drugs that you can take multiple pictures of an area, and then edit them together to give it a fisheye look.
is this possible and do any of you know how to do it?

if you wanted it to look authentic, you'd have one heck of a photoshop job in front of you. You'd need a good tripod, a camera with fully manual settings (to ensure exposure continuity) and a few calculations to get everything lined up properly.

Doing it from a single photo in photoshop would mean you're stretching pixels - which isn't what you want for a quality image.

As Odin_aa pointed out, best to look for a fish-eye lens. I've seen small film cameras that come mounted with a fish-eye lens - they're more novelty cameras, but have a good aesthetic look to the shots.

mac57 · Feb 24, 2007

Back to what Ruke said - you *can* take multiple pictures of an area and then stitch them together using programs like Photoshop and GIMP.

Basically, you need to shoot from a constant position, with a constant exposure and speed, and with constant lighting. Systematically advance your area of shooting with each shot so that you progressively cover a wide swath of the area of interest. Make sure that each new shot includes about 25% of the last shot, so that each of the photos overlaps somewhat with its predecessor.

Then go to Photoshop or GIMP and open all of the pictures at the same time. Create one new background image (initially blank) that is as large as the sum of all of the individual pictures. Then bring each of the individual pictures into the new background image as layers.

You start by arranging the layers into the order of the overall intended image. Then you carefully position them relative to each other by lining up that 25% overlap I mentioned above. You can do this visually by lowering the opacity of the layer you are positioning at the moment so that you can see the overlapping area of the "preceeding" photo in the layer below. Carry on like this until you have positioned all of the images into the full panorama you are looking for. Return all the opacity settings to 100% and flatten the layers back down to a single layer. Done!

Sounds easy? Not really. There are lots of issues that crop up, like the exposure not being quite the same in each of the shots, destroying the continuity from one part of the pano to another. Or your camera may change some automated settings along the way such that you get different color reproduction or some other artifact, again messing up the continuity. Each of these has to be dealt with in turn until the finished image looks decent.

As dtownley1 said, it is a heck of a Photoshop job usually - takes quite a while.

BTW, Photoshop has an automated process that will try to do the sbobr stitching for you automatically. This sometimes works pretty well, and you are done.

A better solution? Get a good wide angle lens, take ONE shot, and be done!!

Ruke · Feb 25, 2007

okay i dont even think iom going to bother trying that or even reading it for that matter.
if i want a fisheye effect i can get an adapter. it wont be the best quality but its better then spending $900 on a real fisheye lens.
thanks for the help though.

dtownley1 · Feb 25, 2007

mac57 said:
Back to what Ruke said - you *can* take multiple pictures of an area and then stitch them together using programs like Photoshop and GIMP.

Basically, you need to shoot from a constant position, with a constant exposure and speed, and with constant lighting. Systematically advance your area of shooting with each shot so that you progressively cover a wide swath of the area of interest. Make sure that each new shot includes about 25% of the last shot, so that each of the photos overlaps somewhat with its predecessor.

Then go to Photoshop or GIMP and open all of the pictures at the same time. Create one new background image (initially blank) that is as large as the sum of all of the individual pictures. Then bring each of the individual pictures into the new background image as layers.

You start by arranging the layers into the order of the overall intended image. Then you carefully position them relative to each other by lining up that 25% overlap I mentioned above. You can do this visually by lowering the opacity of the layer you are positioning at the moment so that you can see the overlapping area of the "preceeding" photo in the layer below. Carry on like this until you have positioned all of the images into the full panorama you are looking for. Return all the opacity settings to 100% and flatten the layers back down to a single layer. Done!

Sounds easy? Not really. There are lots of issues that crop up, like the exposure not being quite the same in each of the shots, destroying the continuity from one part of the pano to another. Or your camera may change some automated settings along the way such that you get different color reproduction or some other artifact, again messing up the continuity. Each of these has to be dealt with in turn until the finished image looks decent.

As dtownley1 said, it is a heck of a Photoshop job usually - takes quite a while.

BTW, Photoshop has an automated process that will try to do the sbobr stitching for you automatically. This sometimes works pretty well, and you are done.

A better solution? Get a good wide angle lens, take ONE shot, and be done!!

thanks for covering all that, mate! I didn't really feel like going as in depth as you did there, well done. I've done a few panoramas for some uni work (including 2x360 degree ones) - one thing I found - keep the subject as far from the camera as possible. A landscape will be much easier. An indoors shot will be an absolute nightmare as the perspective will change so much. In fact, it could well be impossible without extremely heavy image reconstruction.

Ruke, an adaptor may be the best way to go. Just scout around for some. I'm not exactly sure how they look, but if it's something you'll be doing a fair bit, have a look for those cameras I mentioned. I found them in an art gallery store, for around AU$100.

There were some example shots up, and although there were flaws in the camera itself, they created an aesthetic image, much like some of these shots with the Diana cameras

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

I know that I have a freebie app that came with my Digital Rebel XT and it's probably made by Canon. Anywho, it's called PhotoStitch, quite surprisingly.

mac57 · Feb 25, 2007

In a case of pure serendipity, I came across this link this morning. Fits perfectly:

http://echoone.com/doubletake

I haven't used it myself but it claims to be a single purpose panaroma stitcher. You may wish to give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Ruke · Feb 25, 2007

i dont think thats what im looking for
but thanks anyways
i guess the easiest way is just the fisheye lens

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Found a tutorial where you can create a fish-eye lens effect. The Lens Distortion Effect. Dunno if it works in later Photoshop versions.

Ruke · Feb 25, 2007

Thanks you so much MHC!
Using that tutorial was gold. As far as the info goes with that, it was mainly windows based and im pretty sure that it wasnt even photoshop that they were using. But i found out that in PS CS3 you can go to Filter-Distort-Lens Correction and use it to adjust the distortion of a picture.
I'll throw up a picture after I finish testing this method out.

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Well if you have CS2, there is a lens distortion effect! I have it but haven't noticed it before. DOH!!!

You get this in Effect > Distort > Lens Correction...

Below is an image of a screenshot I uploaded in another thread and used the filter on it.

D3v1L80Y · Feb 25, 2007

Yeah, I have used that effect in the past. It is pretty cool. :black:
Before and After the effect:

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Ah cool, DB! The inside of the looking glass was a selection which was then distorted, right?

D3v1L80Y · Feb 25, 2007

Yup. That is pretty much how it was done.

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Well we will be going through the beginner's class exam in Photoshop next week I think so we should be looking at more serious stuff in the following weeks.

Can hardly wait.

Ruke · Feb 25, 2007

ok so heres my picture.
i didnt like the picture that much but it was the only one I could find that wasnt already re-sized.
it turned out alright but i think a fisheye lens would do a way better job.

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Hera ya go. Distorted...

Ruke · Feb 25, 2007

but thats so distorted that it cuts off the subject
and thats not what i wanted.
i guess in order to do this fisheye effect you need to have alot of space around the subject.
but im still going to go with a fisheye attatchment.

MacHeadCase · Feb 25, 2007

Proportionally speaking for that shot to work you would need more sky and terrain. So it wasn't cropped right or the right framing for the proportion needed. Some shots would work but not this picture.

It was just to show you an example of what the filter does, that is all.

help with fisheye

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