Skip to main content
jamescodeglia
Participating Frequently
September 27, 2013
In Development

P: Anamorphic Lens Support (De-squeeze)

  • September 27, 2013
  • 75 replies
  • 19433 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?

75 replies

jamescodeglia
Participating Frequently
November 17, 2020

I much appreciate the workaround tip. I think you hit the nail on the head by calling it the Pixel Aspect Ratio, because that's really what it is. Used to deal with that all the time when working with standard-definition video's .9 pixel aspect ratios in Premiere and After Effects. Hopefully Adobe adds similar functionality so we I can keep my .r3d files in their native format without converting to DNG or making new files in a roundabout trip to Photoshop.

Inspiring
November 2, 2020

After some searching I found a good workaround for this:

I only tried it on Windows, but you should be able to do it in a similiar fashion on Mac:

1. Download exiftool (https://exiftool.org/)

2. On Windows you have to extract it, rename the .exe to "exiftool.exe" and place it in  "C:/Windows"

3. Import your anamorphic images to lightroom as "DNG" (!important!).

4. Open the folder with your images and create a new textfile.

5. Paste this in the new textfile:

for %%f in (*.*) do exiftool -DefaultScale="1.33 1.0" -overwrite_original %%f

This command will change the pixel aspect ratio of all images in the folder it is executed in. In this example 1.33x was used, if you have another aspect ratio you can change it.
For example for 2x change it to -DefaultScale="1.33 1.0" ot -DefaultScale="2.0 1.0"

6. Change the file ending of the textfile to ".bat", for example "desqueeze.bat".

7. Execute the batfile in the folder with your images.

8. Restart Lightroom and your images should appear in the correct aspect ratio. At least in the Develop-Tab, for some reasen they are shown in the original aspect ratio in the library.

You can use the .bat file in any folder you want so you can save it for later

Inspiring
November 2, 2020

Would love to see this feature aswell

Inspiring
August 22, 2020
Right, just allow that Aspect slider in Transform tab to go to -500 or so from the current -100.
I mean, the feature is already there, enhance it a bit, that’s all.
Inspiring
July 8, 2020
I'd like this too, it's a pain going to Photoshop.
jamescodeglia
Participating Frequently
July 1, 2020
In my mind the slider should rest at 0 in the middle for no distortion. Negative numbers on the left and positive numbers on the right, with the ability to type in any aspect ratio needed. Different anamorphic lenses are going to continually be introduced, including 1.8x format.
Participating Frequently
July 1, 2020
so Adobe dev team, is it possible to implement this in order to help and optimize our workflow?
just modify the aspect slider with a guide at 2x and 1,33x
please!!
Inspiring
July 1, 2020
Taking every photo into Photoshop is a huge pain if you ever go back and change your mind about the raw parameters.  As someone else mentioned, there is already an aspect slider.  This just needs to be extended to allow for common desqueeze ratios like 2x and 1.33x
Inspiring
April 6, 2018
I second this. Especially for the Lightroom Mobile (iOS app)
DJohnson1
Participating Frequently
March 28, 2018
With anamorphic lenses now even available for mobile phone cameras (Moondog / Moment) I would very much lke to see this across all flavours of Lightroom