H2 correct 'inverse' fisheye?

[PhotoShoopShoop]

Hi all. I have a group photo taken as a panorama. The problem with the photo is that it's stretched the further you get from center of photo. The result of this is that bodyparts are enlarged closer to the edge. I've fiddled with filters but can't find the one that normalizes the shot. Does anyone have any idea how I can correct the photo using Photoshop?

[Semaphoric]

I would try Filter > Distort > Spherize.

[Jeff Arola]

Can you post the photo?

You can block out the faces if that's a concern.

[PhotoShoopShoop]

Sure. Good idea. Resized image down to 1200x... The hands in the front are huuuuuuuuuuuuge :- )

[Conrad_C]

Looking at the posted photo, I am not sure there is an easy fix for this. Most of the suggestions are working off of the thread title, which uses the word “fisheye.” Before the photo was posted, everyone probably thought this was a typical very wide angle view with curved distortion. That can sometimes be easy to fix with a Photoshop tool such as Adaptive Wide Angle.

But now that the photo is posted, it shows it has straight lines. That suggests the panorama was merged using the Perspective projection. Specifically, that means linear perspective. In linear perspective, closer objects are much larger than distant objects. That’s just the way it is, it’s the way the math works out for linear perspective. You will get the same result if you grab a pencil, a piece of paper, a ruler, and start drawing using traditional linear perspective vanishing points and perspective lines: The wider the view, the more the size of edge objects is exaggerated compared to center objects.

One way to try and reduce this is to go back to the source images and merge them using a non-linear projection, such as Spherical or Cyndrilical. The closer people will still be larger than the farther people, but maybe by not as much. But that may bend many of the straight lines. And even then, I kind of doubt any filters or wide angle correction features will make the head sizes more consistent, because the fact is, the people at the near side of the table are still closer than the people at the far side, and even in the real world, that means the closer people look bigger.

[PhotoShoopShoop]

I follow your logic to some extent. Still the object closer to the lens apepar enlarged beyond what just distance dictates. But we have a new tool in town: Generaive fill. I guess i'll capitulise and give that a shot. The people around the table will not remember the fringe details.... I hope :- ) Thanx everyone!

[D Fosse]

I've sometimes missed a "gradient scale"-function in Photoshop, where the scaling increases/decreases along a gradient.  It could sometimes come in handy with wide angle shots and panos.

Of course, you get the usual problem: straight diagonals will curve. But that's not always a big problem.

You can fake it to a degree, by scaling sections progressively. Start with a wide section, copy paste, scale, merge down, then on to a narrower section, and so on.

[PhotoShoopShoop]

Yes. Did try that and versions of liquify. Tried different lens corrections and where convinced that was the way to go :- ) Currently not found the correct lens? Tried all available...

[Semaphoric]

You sort of have that with Distort > Displace, but it's not very intuitive. I've used it on occasion with shots of buildings where the straightened perspective makes them look top-heavy. A custom displacement map is saved as a layer in the .PSD, which compresses the building vertically near the top, but not enough to produce too noticable curvature.