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jamescodeglia
Participating Frequently
September 27, 2013
Under Review

P: Anamorphic Lens Support (De-squeeze)

  • September 27, 2013
  • 72 replies
  • 19063 views

I shoot video using the Red Epic camera, which shoots super high resolution video. I often pull high-res photos from the camera and use them in Lightroom. However, I'm hoping to add a feature that supports anamorphic lenses. These lenses shoot natively-stretched pixels. Meaning, the images are stretched vertically 2:1. It's a classic way to shoot movies, and I wish Lightroom supported a way to select the pixel aspect ratio so the images can be viewed undistorted. Currently, I have to stretch them in Photoshop and export. Which is a bummer because the Red Camera's raw files are supported in LR, and I would love to use those files straight from the camera rather than make new ones. Anyone else agree?

72 replies

Participant
December 2, 2024

@ivanb84877422Don't know if it can help you specific situation with huge photos but I do desqueeze via first converting RAW to DNG via dnglab https://github.com/dnglab/dnglab and then setting desqueeze factor for the DNG via exiftool https://exiftool.org/  Then I import the DNG into Lightroom (Lightroom will pickup the ratio and diplay desqueezed image).

dnglab and exiftool are command-line tools, I created two PowerShell scripts to help me with batch conversion, this way I can do easy desqueeze of my anamorphic timelapses with hundreds of photos that are then simply imported into Lightroom as DNG RAW. Adobe still sucks for not listening and implementing this basic function though 🙂

My script for RAW -> DNG conversion (various formats supported by dnglab):
https://gist.github.com/brkerez/e9ad8c58017f36354b3b2527be18b6d2
My script for DNG ratio:
https://gist.github.com/brkerez/10e20d247028cbebaa4fb96fe517fd88

You have to:
1. get dnglab and place it somewhere (lets say c:\tools\dnglab dir)
2. get exiftool and place it somewhere (lets say c:\tools\exiftool dir) - I'm installing via `winget install OliverBetz.ExifTool` so it's in PATH

3. Place the raw images into some directory, lets say 'c:\photo\raw' and my scripts into some dirs, lets say 'c:\tools\scripts'
4. run the RAW conversion script:

# cd into photo dir
cd c:\photo\raw
# convert the images and place them into "output_dng" directory
c:\scripts\convert-raw-to-dng.ps1 -DnglabPath "c:\toos\dnglab"

5. run the anamorphic ratio script (default ratio is 1.6 in my scripts as I use Sirui 50mm 1.6x) but you can set any ration via parameter - lets say you use 1.3:

# cd into photo dir
cd output_dng
# set the anamorphic ratio to 1.3 for all the DNG images in the dir
c:\scripts\set-dng-exif-anamorphic-ratio.ps1 -ExifToolPath "c:\toos\exiftool" -Ratio 1.3


Then import DNG into Lightroom and see what happens 😉

 

Participating Frequently
December 2, 2024

Ok. This is crazy. I'm in a super frustrating point right now. Yes, it would be ideal if Lightroom CC would allow for anamorphic desqueeze (various ratios) but now not even Photoshop can help me out here. I'm trying to de-squeese a hi-res image but Photoshop will now allow me to go beyond 30,000pixels. I need to get to 30,4012 pixels and 4k pixels is too much to let slip by. The image doesn't look right. 

Tried C1 and it also doesn't support de-squeeze. Any ideas as to how to get around this? Would like to make my print as soon as possible.

Adobe is letting me down big time right now. 

Pallacium
Participating Frequently
November 15, 2024

Mid-November 2024 and we're still waiting for Adobe to extend the values ​​of a slider.
I'm going to abandon the full CC suite at this point, between After, Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom, the only new things we get are AI gen functions mostly made to kill our jobs.

Participant
August 25, 2024

Wow, Adobe - over 10 years since the original request to implement anamorphic lens support in Camera Raw and Lightroom and we're STILL having to hack the exif data of raw photos to make it work?

Clearly the implementation of a pixel aspect ratio slider was too complicated a task for their team, so they tackled the much easier job of making it possible to insert photoreal AI garbage into our photos. Maybe we should ask AI to design the next iteration of Lightroom because Adobe's engineers are clearly not up to snuff.

Participant
June 24, 2024

Please make it possible to squeeze images.

By a sensible preset factor like 1.33x, 1.8x or 2x, or custom (maybe reasonably limited percentage for example +- 500%)

 

This is needed for working with anamorphic imagery but would be a nice addition for any other case (why ever) you would want to squeeze the image by a set factor/percentage.

 

It could replace the "aspect ratio" value in the geometry settings, as this slider just goes from -100 to 100 which seems arbitrary and limited. What is 100 in this context anyway?

 

Right now i have to go through Photoshop on desktop, as there is no functionality in Photoshop Express either, which is very annoying.

Participant
February 1, 2024

I would like to see a pixel aspect ratio setting for use with anamorphic or heavily squeezed images. Currently, the only way to de-squeeze an image is via use of the "aspect" slider under the geometry settings, however this slider is not strong enough nor precise enough to de-squeeze anamorphic images. A pixel aspect ratio setting could allow for exact squeeze factors to be entered and for the image to be resized accordingly.

Participating Frequently
August 22, 2023

I am a video producer and shoot video with anamorphic lenses a lot. Every now and then I also use these lenses to take pictures that I want to edit with lightroom mobile. Unfortunately I cannot use the app to 'desqueeze' my pictures. It would be awesome to have a different slider in the geometry section of lightroom mobile. Now it goes from -100% to +100%, but it's not clear what is exactly happens. The app does not state how the aspect ratio changes. Alternatively, seperate sliders for height and width could also sort my problem, e.g. 100% width, 55% height (since I am using 1.8x anamorphics)

Participating Frequently
March 21, 2025

Feature Request Title: De-Squeeze Function

Description of Feature: Add a variable de-squeeze function to Lightroom for de-squeezing anamorphic photos.

Feature Functions Requested:

  • De-squeeze based on input of anamorphic factor (e.g. input 1.33 to de-squeeze from 1.33x anamorphic factor)
  • Allow for variable or uncommon anamorphic factors (ie. 1.26 anamorphic)
  • Allow for vertical shooting anamorphic de-squeeze (ie. allow anamorphic factor to be entered for either horizontal or vertical)
  • Allow a "cinema" selection which will "wide-screen" (black bar top and bottom) the image during anamorphic de-squeeze

Additional Notes:

Auto-detection of anamorphism is not required. This should be a manually selected option and entered factor.

ak41509677
Participating Frequently
May 18, 2023

Lol whoosh.

TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
May 18, 2023

It's spelled out here: 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/how-do-i-write-a-feature-request/idi-p/12384447

And you'll notice the upvote box at the top, with only 26 votes. 

As for 'not hard' to provide the feature, you have the source code, and you know not only how difficult it would be but what features are on the table that might have to be sidelined to provide the feature to only 26 people in 10 years have voted for? 

Get more votes, then the possibility (zero promises), the feature will even be considered will get considered. 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
ak41509677
Participating Frequently
May 18, 2023

I mean, I didn't even know there was a vote function here, or that it's how Adobe's development objectives were set. Maybe I'm the only one here for whom that's the case, but I doubt it. Anyway, it's *not* hard to allow manual values to be entered. They allow it on other controls. Apple allows it in FCPX. It's a pretty trivial improvement.