Photo Term Series Post #13: Barrel Distortion

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“Barrel Distortion, in which image magnification decreases with increasing distance from the optical axis. The apparent effect is that of an image which has been mapped around a sphere. Fisheye lenses, which take hemispherical views, produce this type of distortion as a result of a hemispherical scene being projected onto a flat surface.” – Wikipedia

Or…

“Barrel distortion is a lens effect which causes images to be spherised or “inflated”. Barrel distortion is associated with wide angle lenses and typically occurs at the wide end of a zoom lens. The use of converters often amplifies the effect. It is most visible in images with perfectly straight lines, especially when they are close to the edge of the image frame.” – DPReview.com

Examples:

16mm end of a 16-35mm lens on a full frame film SLR

Golden Gate Lights architecture photograph by Jim M. Goldstein

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Posted by Jim on 08.01.2007 at 12:01 am
Tagged: California, Locations, Photography, San Francisco, Terminology

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Andrew Ferguson

I find it really difficult to determine whether or not there's barrel distortion just using my eyes. I have to tightly grid the image in Photoshop in order to tell.

I'm fine for colour and everything, but I can't draw a straight line to save my life :P

Brian Auer

It's funny, my 18-200mm lens has really bad barrel distortion at the wide end. While my 10-20mm lens has really bad pincushion at the wide end. Though sometimes I like including those distortions in the shot -- sometimes they make for really neat stuff.

jim

Some lenses are definitely easier to detect these types of distortion than others. It takes some training to see it consistently. Once familiar with your gear it becomes easier to detect.

digital photography

Frankly speaking, I haven't cared much about this kind of distortion, but now i think i'll have to look at some of my images once again and fix this problem, because since i do take a lot of architecture photos, i'm acquinted with the problem.