# During photo shoot, why images on the iPhone screen are distorted?



## photo_abc (Mar 15, 2016)

Hi, I try to take photo of an object on a table. Behind it, I see a vertical edge between two walls. My tripod is leveled. How come on the LCD screen of my iPhone 6s+, the virtual edge is not vertical? Similarly, yesterday I placed two objects next to each other with a gap in between. The edges are parallels but on the LCD screen of my phone, they are not. Anybody knows what is going on?


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## Ysarex (Mar 15, 2016)

Either the camera is tilted and/or the lens is distorting the image. Show us photos.

Joe


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## The_Traveler (Mar 15, 2016)

Perspective distortion, particularly strong because of the short focal length of cell camera lens and small lens to object distance.

Perspective distortion (photography) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## photo_abc (Mar 15, 2016)

Thank you. Yes, that is the problem I mentioned. Is there a way to fix this problem? I read that lens from Moment do not have distortion but the iPhone 6s+ has. Will the problem be solved (or improved a lot) if I use Moment lens? Should I use Wide lens?


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## Ysarex (Mar 15, 2016)

photo_abc said:


> Thank you. Yes, that is the problem I mentioned. Is there a way to fix this problem? I read that lens from Moment do not have distortion but the iPhone 6s+ has. Will the problem be solved (or improved a lot) if I use Moment lens? Should I use Wide lens?



What is the problem you mentioned? Distortion in the lens or distortion due to tilting the camera? Show us photos.

Joe


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## The_Traveler (Mar 15, 2016)

Perspective distortion exists with any lens - and with your eyes as well. When you perceive distortion with your eyes, your brain that tells you the perspective distortion is normal.
You can't really 'correct' it, you can only minimize it by having some distance between the lens and the object and have the plane of the sensor as much as possible parallel with teh plane of the subject.


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## photo_abc (Mar 15, 2016)

As shown in the photo, the vertical edge of the wall is tilted. If you look at the top left corner, you can see more distortions both vertically and horizontally. Trying to make the vertical edge looks vertical on the iPhone tilts the horizontal edges more. Also, the Windows XP CD cover looks distorted.



bbqbuild's Library Slideshow


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## Ysarex (Mar 15, 2016)

photo_abc said:


> As shown in the photo, the vertical edge of the wall is tilted. If you look at the top left corner, you can see more distortions both vertically and horizontally. Trying to make the vertical edge looks vertical on the iPhone tilts the horizontal edges more. Also, the Windows XP CD cover looks distorted.
> 
> 
> 
> bbqbuild's Library Slideshow



OK what you're seeing is commonly called perspective distortion but more accurately should be called shape distortion. It's not your lens. You have the plane of the sensor turned/tilted to the planes in the subject. All cameras will do this in the same way. The solution is to keep the plane of the sensor parallel to the plane of the subject or make the correction in software.

Joe


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## photo_abc (Mar 16, 2016)

Thanks. So, buying the Wide or Tele lens from Moment will not hep.

"The solution is to keep the plane of the sensor parallel to the plane of the subject or make the correction in software."

Sorry I don't get it. What plane of the sensor and what plane of the subject? Is there an illustration?
How to correct it in software?


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## Designer (Mar 16, 2016)

photo_abc said:


> Thanks. So, buying the Wide or Tele lens from Moment will not hep.
> 
> "The solution is to keep the plane of the sensor parallel to the plane of the subject or make the correction in software."
> 
> ...


Correct; a wide angle lens will only make the distortion more pronounced.

The sensor is the part inside your phone (or any electronic camera) that converts the light rays into digital information.  Since most sensors are positioned parallel to the back of the phone, it's easy to assume that the back of the phone is for all practical purposes is the same as the sensor.  Hold your phone with the main flatness of the phone perpendicular to your subject.  

Correcting distortion in editing is an advanced technique that some softwares are capable of.


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## Ysarex (Mar 16, 2016)

photo_abc said:


> Thanks. So, buying the Wide or Tele lens from Moment will not hep.
> 
> "The solution is to keep the plane of the sensor parallel to the plane of the subject or make the correction in software."
> 
> ...



Buying the Moment lens will not help.

The sensor in the camera is a two dimensional flat plane. Two dimensional planes exist in what you're photographing. The folder on the table is a rectangular flat plane. The walls and table are also flat planes. In your photo the camera sensor plane is not parallel to the folder plane and so the folder is no longer a rectangle but a trapezoid (illustration). And the same is happening to the walls. Your subject has multiple planes that are not parallel to each other and so you have set up a situation where you must distort the shape of at least two the three planes in the scene. You positioned the camera to distort them all.

Editing software can at least partially correct shape distortion if it isn't too severe. I used Photoshop.

Joe


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## photo_abc (Mar 16, 2016)

Thanks. My main issue right now is the vertical edge of the wall. If that could be correct, it would be sufficient.


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## atiqursumon (Mar 17, 2016)

If you don't mind  please changing the image file types from PNG to JPEG .


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## photo_abc (Mar 20, 2016)

I found an app called SKRWT that could collect the distortion. However, the bottom area disappeared. How come? Is there an app that could correct the distortion (vertical edge) without removing the bottom area? Is there an app that could correct distortion not only in photo but also in video?


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