Barrel and Pincushion Distortion

As digital photography gets popularized, there are more and more different kinds of zoom lenses in the market designed for different usage.

It is without doubt very convenient to use a zoom lens. With range covering a wide range of focal length, saving you the trouble of keep having to change your lenses.

Despite its convenience, there are some setbacks for most zoom lens, which is lens distortion. The most common distortion from zoom lens are Barrel Distortion and Pincushion Distortion.

Zoom lens suffers from Barrel Distortion at wide angles. Barrel distortion is most noticeable when you have straight vertical or horizontal lines near the edges of the frame especially.

Below is an illustration of how Barrel Distortion looks like.

Pincushion distortion is usually noticeable at telephoto range with lines bending inwards towards the center of the frame.

The picture below is an illustration of how Pincushion Distortion will look like.

There are a few ways to correct these distortion and the fastest and efficient way is by photo-editing software.

For example, you can easily correct it in PhotoShop by: Filter -> Distort -> Lens Correction.

Yong Sak is a Singapore Freelance Photographer who runs a photography portal, sharing many important Basic Photography Fundamentals to friends who are new to this hobby.