Today’s Question: I have a photo of a building that exhibits the common “leaning away” look due to perspective. I applied the Lens Correction adjustment in Lightroom Classic, but this didn’t address the issue. Is there a way to fix this distortion based on the perspective for an architectural photo?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In most cases to correct perspective in architectural photos, I recommend using the Guided option for the Upright adjustment in the Transform section in Lightroom Classic (found in the Geometry section for the Crop tool in Camera Raw).
More Detail: The Guided option for the Upright adjustment in the Transform section on the right panel of the Develop module in Lightroom Classic enables you to straighten out the perspective for buildings or other objects that should have lines that are perfectly (or nearly so) horizontal or vertical. The results can seem outright magical.
To get started go to the Transform section of the right panel in the Develop module and choose Guided from the set of buttons under the Upright label. Within the image you can then click-and-drag at least two lines and as many as four lines to align with edges within the image that should be perfectly horizonal or perfectly vertical. In many cases this will involve first drawing two horizontal lines, such as along a roof line and a foundation line, and then two vertical lines such as along the outer vertical walls of the building.
You won’t see any effect until you have drawn two lines, and the image will continue to update as you draw the third and fourth line. The adjustment will cause the lines you draw, along with the image itself, to be adjusted so they are perfectly horizontal or vertical, depending on whether they are closer to horizontal or vertical as drawn.
Once you’ve improved the alignment of lines within the image, you can continue to fine-tune using the Transform controls below the Upright buttons. For example, you may want to fine-tune the slider value for Vertical and Horizontal to refine the overall perspective for the image.
It can also be very helpful to adjust the Aspect slider to stretch the image either horizontally or vertically to improve the accuracy of the relationship between the height and width of the building. For example, in some cases you may find the adjustments cause the building to look to short and squat, while in other cases you may find the building seems artificially tall and skinny. The Aspect slider provides an excellent way to resolve this issue.
