Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Hmmm - poster for Harry Potter and the Haunted Lighthouse? ;-)

Whatever kind of distortion it is, it's downright spooky. If that's not a haunted lighthouse, I don't know what is.

Richard actually the effect seen in this photo is from a form of perspective distortion. Because of my distance to the subject and landscape perspective the barrel distortion isn't as obvious as my previous example a couple of days ago.

Parallax distortion is something I was going to post at a later time...
Parallax distortion is the perceived movement of two fixed points as you the viewer change positions.

This is most easily exemplified when looking at an object with one eye and keeping your other closed. If you switch looking at the same subject with your other eye (closing the eye you were previously looking at the subject with) you'll see a shift. Photographers get this same effect with some cameras when looking through the lens-finder versus the final output captured through the lens. Parallax distortion is also something that can impact panoramic photography as I've noted in my write up Mastering Digital Panoramic Photography

I believe this photo is actually an example of paralax distortion otherwise known as perspective distortion. Usually it's a result of using a wide angle lens and shooting upwards at a subject. My opinion is that sometimes it works and sometimes it is annoying. It works in this case due to the lack of detail in the building.