Photoshop CS2: Creating and Eliminating Optical Distortion

Only in Photoshop CS2 can you alter the distortion created by a camera lens with the Lens Correction filter. In this article, Linda shows how to get the most out of this filter. She illustrates how to correct images that appear distorted, but she also shows how to create some special effects through the options contained within this filter. Additionally, she compares this filter’s options to other Photoshop tools that may create the same effect.

Lens Correction: Exciting New Option

Most of you are already familiar with the Warp transformation tool, the Perspective tool, and the distortion filters like Pinch and Spherize that are contained in Photoshop CS2 as well as in previous Photoshop versions. The Lens Correction filter, introduced for the first time in Photoshop CS2, mimics many of the attributes contained in all the previously mentioned tools and filters; but, the Lens Correction tool can take your creativity a touch further, because you can control many options at the same time. When you combine this tool with other options, you often can correct what you thought were unsalvageable images.

However, there’s only so much that the Lens Correction filter can accomplish. If you have a photograph like the one shown below, there’s not much you can do to fix it with the Lens Correction filter (or with any other tool for that matter):

The image above, taken in Chicago, contains every problem that the Lens Correction filter can fix – but when a photograph contains all of those problems in one image, the “fixing” is stymied. Instead, I’ll use this shot to explain various photo distortions and – at the same time – to introduce you to the Lens Correction filter.