Correct lens distortion and adjust perspective

    About lens distortion

    Camera lenses can exhibit different types of defects at certain focal lengths, f-stops, and focus distances. You can correct for these apparent lens distortions using the Lens Corrections panel of the Develop module.

    Vignetting causes the edges of an image, especially the corners, to be darker than the center. It is particularly noticeable when the photo contains a subject that is supposed to be an even shade or tone, such as the sky in a landscape image.

    Barrel distortion causes straight lines to appear to bow outward.

    Pincushion distortion causes straight lines to appear to bend inward.

    Chromatic aberration Chromatic aberration appears as a color fringe along the edges of objects. It is caused by the failure of the lens to focus different colors to the same spot, aberrations in sensor microlenses, and by flare. Lightroom provides a checkbox to automatically correct blue-yellow and red-green fringes, also known as lateral chromatic aberration.

    Lightroom 4.1 and later provides slider controls to correct purple/magenta and green aberration (axial chromatic aberration). Axial chromatic aberration often occurs in images made with large apertures.

    Original photo with blue/yellow fringing (left), and after fixing chromatic aberration (lower right).

    Correct image perspective and lens flaws automatically

    The Profile options in the Lens Corrections panel of the Develop module correct distortions in common camera lenses. The profiles are based on Exif metadata that identifies the camera and lens that captured the photo, and the profiles compensate accordingly.

    Lens profiles are saved in the following locations:

    Mac OS
    /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/

    Windows Vista or Windows 7
    C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\LensProfiles\1.0\

    Important: The lens profiles that are available in the Lens Corrections panel depend on whether you’re adjusting a raw or a non-raw file. For more information and a list of supported lenses, see the Adobe Support article Lens profile support | Lightroom, Photoshop, Camera Raw.
    1. In the Lens Corrections panel of the Develop module, click Profile and select Enable Profile Corrections.
    2. To change the profile, select a different Make, Model, or Profile.
      Note: Some cameras have only one lens, and some lenses have only one profile.
    3. Customize the correction by adjusting the Amount sliders:
      Distortion
      The default value 100 applies 100% of the distortion correction in the profile. Values over 100 apply greater correction to the distortion; values under 100 apply less correction to the distortion.

      Vignetting
      The default value 100 applies 100% of the vignetting correction in the profile. Values over 100 apply greater correction to vignetting; values under 100 apply less correction to vignetting.

    4. (Optional) To apply your changes to the default profile, click Setup and choose Save New Lens Profile Defaults.

    Correct chromatic aberration

    In the Develop module Lens Correction panel, click Color to display the chromatic aberration and defringe controls.

    Note: To get a better view of the result, zoom in on the image area that shows the aberration.

    For more details about color aberration and how to remove it, see New Color Fringe Correction Controls in the Lightroom Journal.

    Remove red-green and blue-yellow color shifts

     Select the Remove Chromatic Aberration checkbox.

    Remove global purple and green fringes with the eyedropper

    1. Click the eyedropper tool in the Color Corrections Color panel.
    2. Press the spacebar to pan and zoom into the fringe area. (Setting your default zoom to 2:1 or 4:1 helps you view the fringe colors.)
    3. Click purple and green fringe colors.

      The sliders are automatically adjusted for that color. If you click a color outside of the purple or green hue ranges, you’ll see an error message.

      The end of the eyedropper will change to purple or green if the color under the eyedropper is within the purple or green hue ranges.

    Remove global purple/magenta and green fringes

     Adjust the purple and green Amount slider. The higher the amount, the more color defringing.

    Take care not apply an adjustment that affects purple or green objects in your image.

    You can adjust the purple or green hue range affected by the Amount slider using the Purple Hue and the Green Hue sliders. Drag either end point control to expand or decrease the range of affected colors. Drag between the end point controls to move the hue range. The minimum space between end points is 10 units. The default spacing for the green sliders is narrow to protect green/yellow image colors, like foliage.

    Note: You can protect edges of purple and green objects using local adjustment brush. See Remove local color fringes.

    Press the Alt/Option key as you drag any of the sliders to help visualize the adjustment. The fringe color becomes neutral as you drag to remove the color.

    Remove local color fringes

    Local brush and gradient adjustments remove fringes of all colors.

    Note: For best results, perform any Transform lens corrections before applying local color fringe adjustments.
    1. Select the brush or gradient tools and drag in the image. See Apply local adjustments.
    2. Adjust the Defringe slider. A plus value removes the color fringe. Minus values protect image areas from defringing that you apply globally. Minus 100 protects the area from any defringing. For example, applying a strong global purple defringe may desaturate or alter edges of purple objects in your image. Painting with Defringe -100 over those areas will protect them and keep them at their original color.
    Note: Local defringe is available for Process 2012 only.

    Correct image perspective and lens flaws manually

    Transform and vignette corrections can be applied to original and cropped photo edges. Lens vignettes adjust exposure values to brighten dark corners.

    1. In the Lens Corrections panel, click Manual.
    2. Under Transform, adjust any of the following:
      Distortion
      Drag to the right to correct barrel distortion and straighten lines that bend away from the center. Drag to the left to correct pincushion distortion and straighten lines that bend toward the center.

      Vertical
      corrects perspective caused by tilting the camera up or down. Makes vertical lines appear parallel.

      Horizontal
      Corrects perspective caused by angling the camera left or right. Makes horizontal lines parallel.

      Rotate
      Corrects for camera tilt. Uses the center of the original, uncropped photo as the axis of rotation.

      Scale
      Adjusts the image scale up or down. Helps to remove empty areas caused by perspective corrections and distortions. Displays areas of the image that extend beyond the crop boundary.

      Constrain crop
      Constrains the crop to the image area so that gray border pixels are not included in the final photo.

    3. Under Lens Vignetting adjust either or both of the following:
      Amount
      Move the Amount slider to the right (positive values) to lighten the corners of the photo. Move the slider to the left (negative values) to darken the corners of the photo.

      Midpoint
      Drag the Midpoint slider to the left (lower value) to apply the Amount adjustment to a larger area away from the corners. Drag the slider to the right (higher value) to restrict the adjustment to an area closer to the corners.