P: Anamorphic Lens Support (De-squeeze)

[jamescodeglia]

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?

[Patrick.Cloudscape.ch]

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.

[scottf52282122]

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.

[Pallacium]

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.

[ivanb84877422]

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. 

[pavelt38227864]

@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 😉

[pavelt38227864]

Update regarding my previous scripts if you are not familiar with Powershell scripting environment:

• PowerShell 5.1 is installed on every Windows computer and my scripts should run fine with this relatively old version but I always install recent 7.x version from Microsoft https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-windows?view...
• You have to run them from Powershell shell - I'm using Microsoft Windows Terminal https://github.com/microsoft/terminal but it should be ok for default Windows installation to just search for 'Powershell' in Windows start menu and run it and start the scripts from there

[ChrisKou]

With the recent introduction of AF anamorphic lenses from Sirui and Blazar, this feature is going to be needed more than ever. I am shooting a lot of anamorphic photography now and the round trip to and from Photoshop is tedious, takes up a lot of additional hard drive space to store additional TIFs, and should be totally unnecessary. Adobe, get on this!

[Vlad237]

Same here, I am using anamorphic adapter for my still camera and still lenses. Really hope for a desqueeze function to make everything simple thank you Adobe!

[ivanb84877422]

I'll add to the sentiment of adding anamorphic de-squeeze support in light room. Would be super helpful please and thank you!

[Dustin Stockel]

Just basic lens profiles are all that is needed.

[ivanb84877422]

yeah but specific desqueeze funtion would be good too. for vintage stuff that there might be no lens profile. both would be key though

[Dustin Stockel]

It is nice having it for sure.

[Zombie_RF]

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.

[Zombie_RF]

Lens profile version wouldn't work for vintage lenses, anamorphic adapters, or custom made/modified lenses.

This would also likely be significantly more dev time than just a ratio input to de-squeeze.

[Stu Maschwitz]

Adding a vote here. Autofocus anamorphic lenses are now a thing, so this topic will rapidly become less niche. I'd echo other comments that this is not necessarily linked to profiling specific lenses. I personally do not want to remove all the distortion and vignetting from my anamorphics, I just need the proper pixel aspect ratio. As has been pointed out, this won't be in metadata, so it needs to be manually set.

Crucially, this should not be handled by the existing Transform controls. Even if the Aspect slider could go farther, it would be a bad way to correct for anamorphic distortion, as it would make any other transforms wonky due to the order of operations.

Pixel Aspect Ratio is well understood by other Adobe apps. Time for Lightroom to join the party. Anamorphics are a blast!

-Stu

[Dustin Stockel]

Yeah, the way it has to be done right now, doesn't allow the full resolution to be used.

[ivanb84877422]

I agree with this sentiment. I a simple de-squeeze function would be stellar. If it will speed up the process, I'd say forget about 'lens correction' aspect of it. Just a simple de-squeeze that can handle different ratios is what's needed. Hope this becomes a reality soon!

[Dustin Stockel]

[Dustin Stockel]

Agreed.  While I do plan on fully profiling the Catos and Remus I have, most times I just want to desqueeze, so that's how I have it setup.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings all, 

I've up-leveled this to the Camera Raw team for evaluation, and they've asked me to collect some data. 

What we need are some sample images, shot with your anamorphic lenses. 

Raw files and DNGs would work best.
We would like to get a broad sample of images from different aspects and different devices. 

If you can contribute an image or two, along with the capture body, the lens used, and the aspect (if you know it) information and post them to a sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share a link so we can download them. If you want to share the link in private, direct message me via the forum and use "Anamorphic" in your subject line. 

Thank you for you help!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Updating status

[Dustin Stockel]

Are we wanting lens profiles or just desqueeze support?  While I would love to have the additional canvas created for desqueezing, at least we can easily make profiles to desqueeze ourselves.

 

[ChrisKou]

For myself, just a simple desqueeze would be sufficient for my needs. That is what I do in video, and lens distortion correction is a different action.

[Stu Maschwitz]

To me it's crucial that de-squeeze is a seperate thing from profiled lens distortion and the existing Transform controls:

• I don't expect or need Adobe (or anyone) to profile every anamorphic lens that gets released.
• Usually we choose anamorphic because we like the character, e.g. vignetting, distortion.
• But hey, if you want to profile an anamorphic lens, great! Just let the de-squeeze happen without the rest of the distortion removal.
• De-squeeze should be seperate from Transform, so that we can still crop/rotate. straighten etc. with the image handled properly. Premiere and After Effects do this correctly with non-square pixel aspect ratios.
• De-squeeze should automatically change the aspect ratio of the photo, so that no cropping or borders are introduced.

@Dustin Stockel did you create profiles yourself for de-squeezing? Using Adobe Lens Profile Creator? What you showed there looks great, but I am unable to run Adobe Lens Profile Creator.app on my brand-new Mac, which seems like a problem. But it looks like you were able to create a profile that de-squeezes without any other correction?

-Stu

[Zombie_RF]

 Rikk,

Here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/hxd655vv34eydq5ad29ai/AI794CG_MTB1MwZBfe1wzA0?rlkey=6wbl5f0n1kqp7mvi8...

4 pictures taken anamorphic. The .NEF was taken with my Nikon Zf using a Viltrox 28mm f4.5 autofocus pancake lens with a 17mm thread Freewell 1.33x anamorphic adapter attached to it with a custom mount.

The 3 .ARW files were taken with my Sony a6500 using a Sirui Nightwalker 35mm f1.2 manual focus lens with a Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter threaded on. One of those was obviously taken vertically.

I want to be able to enter a ratio. I have no need for lens profiles as most of my lenses are either modified or manual focus with no interface and therefore no profiles to be had.

I would like to be able to just enter a squeeze ration and specify horizontal or vertical for the desqueeze.

Bonus points if you can do a locked or unlocked image size ratio and if locked, specify what color bars you want on the top and bottom or left and right sides depending on horizontal or vertical.

I'm currently working on a custom lens (modified from a helios 44-2) that will have a 1.72 anamorphic ratio, hence the want for the ability to just enter a squeeze ratio value and not rely on common ones only or on lens profiles.

Thank you