These two tips come from my new books from Peachpit Press: Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop for Video (Fourth Edition).

One of the commands in Photoshop CS5 that received a major makeover is the Lens Correction command. It’s no longer buried, rather it sits proudly near the top of the filter menu. Adobe now ties the filter to specific lenses in the file’s metadata. You can even create your own lens profiles with a great utility. Visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lensprofile_creator/ for full details.

Lens Correction for Stills

The Lens Correction filter is designed to fix common flaws in an image (such as barrel distortion, lens vignettes, and chromatic aberration). The filter can be run on 8  or 16 bit-per-channel images that use the RGB or Grayscale image mode. The filter can also correct perspective problems caused by camera tilt.

1. Open any image.

Raw images or those with camera metadata work best. If you want to follow along, you can download this file.

2. Choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters to ensure future flexibility in editing. This makes the image a Smart Object.

3. Choose Filter > Lens Correction.

A new window opens. Look in the bottom-left corner for information about the camera and lens used for the shot (this is included in the metadata the camera wrote to the original file).

4. Choose a manufacturer from the Camera Make menu.

For our sample image, choose Nikon Corporation.

5. From the Camera Model menu, choose the correct camera model.

For our sample image, choose Nikon Corporation.

6. From the Lens Model menu, choose the correct lens.

For our sample image, the closest match is the 17.0-70.0 mm f/2.8-4.5.

7. From the Auto Correction tab, select the Geometric Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, Vignette, and Auto Scale Image options.

8. Switch to the Custom tab for advanced controls.

9. Click the Show Grid option at the bottom of the window.

For our sample image, let’s compensate for the low angle, which is causing some keystoning.

10. Set the Vertical Perspective to -40.

11. Set Vignette Amount to 20 to further brighten the edges.

12. Click OK to apply the correction.

You can double-click the Lens Correction filter in the Layers panel to open the Smart filter for future edits.

Lens Correction for DSLR Video

The Lens Correction filter can also be used on DSLR video files. This is a useful way to remove lens or geometric distortion. When your’re done, you’ll need to render the video file back out of Photoshop (File > Export > Render Video).

1. Close any open files, and then open a video file.

If you want to follow along, download this movie file.

2. Choose Filter> Convert for Smart Filters to ensure future flexibility in editing.

Be sure to check out the band 7Nations – www.sevennations.com

3. Choose Filter>Lens Correction. A new window opens.

4. Check the Show Grid box to make it easier to see perspective issues.

5. Choose a manufacturer from the Camera Make menu.

For our sample clip, choose Canon Corporation.

6. From the Camera Model menu, choose the correct camera model.

For our sample clip, just choose All as the Canon 7D is not available.

7. From the Lens Model menu, choose the correct lens.

For our sample clip, the correct match is the EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. From the Auto Correction tab, check the Geometric Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, Vignette, and Auto Scale Image options.

8. Switch to the Custom tab for advance controls.

Let’s compensate for the off-angle shot, which is causing some keystoning.

9. Set the Vertical Perspective to -26 and the Vertical Perspective to -4.

10. Set Vignette Amount to 20 to further brighten the edges.

11. Click OK to apply the correction. Due to the complexity of the effect, the video clip will not playback smoothly. Be sure to use the File>Export>Render Video command to process the file and create a new clip.

You can double-click the Lens Correction filter in the Layers panel to open the Smart filter for future edits.