Correct Lens Distortion with PTLens

We mentioned in the second podcast how barrel distortion was able to be corrected, and in the fifth episode the software that can do that - well, here's a brief overview of PTLens.

PTLens is nothing short of an amazing tool for real estate photographers. It can fix all sorts of distortion problems including lens pincushion/barrel distortion, fisheye distortion, vignetting, perspective distortion, and chromatic aberrations. The main thing to point out is that it doesn't duplicate Photoshop's 'Lens Correction' filter and that's because Photoshop's filter is fairly limited. PTLens produces better and more consistent results than Photoshop for various reasons, but the main one being that: "Photoshop uses one parameter to correct distortion while PTLens can utilize up to 3 parameters. One parameter often does a fine job on standard and telephoto lenses. Wide-angle lenses typically require more than one parameter for accurate correction. For example, moustache distortion can be corrected with PTLens but not with Photoshop's Lens Correction filter."

The continually updated library of lenses is another selling-point. If you acquire a lens that isn't in the database already, you can send in some calibration images and they'll run run the distortion test on the files, then update the database. How great is that?

The final feature to note is the tight Lightroom integration. Say you just came back from a shoot, you've post-processed your files, and you are about to export them for delivery - well, just quickly send them to PTLens to correct the barrel distortion and you're on your way.

One thought remains -whenLightroom has the ability to do lens corrections, will it be as good as PTLens? More than likely not at first, but only time will tell.

The trial currently allows you to correct 10 files and the price for a license at the moment is $25.

We'll be doing a video review of PTLens and all it offers in the future, so stay tuned.

Check our PTLens here.