Late in 2006 I bought my second dSLR camera, well actually it could be considered my first as it is the first one that I bought and then didn’t turn around and sell. This camera was the Pentax K10D. Along with it I also bought a couple of lenses one of the most fun lenses I bought was the Pentax 10-17mm fisheye lens. What makes this lens so much fun is that at the 10mm end you get a field of view of 180 degrees in a single shot. Now that is panoramic. However, the sometimes downside is the fisheye effect. Now I say sometimes downside because the fisheye effect is only an issue, at least for me with some images. Images such as those of buildings or those with people or basically any man made object I don’t tend to like with the fisheye effect. However, I can shoot scenic shots until the Martians came and have no issue with 99% of them having the fisheye effect.
So that left looking for a way to get rid of or at least minimize the fisheye effect. I have tried the lens correction function in Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS3 and find that it makes such a big mess of the image that even if it can correct the fisheye effect (it can't at the 10mm end of the lens, but sometimes can at the 17mm end of the lens) I am left with an image that just isn't usable. It maybe fine for small lens distortion problems but for major problems like fisheye it really leaves a lot to be desired. I have also tried LensDoc 3.0 from Andromeda software and while this Photoshop plug-ins works well, it requires some work on the part of the user. Since I am a lazy photographer and feel that my large investment in the latest in computer technology should actually save me some time and effort I kept looking. Finally I found Image Trends Inc.’s Fisheye-Hemi Photoshop filter, this very affordable plug-in includes three different versions all of which are totally automated all of which work extremely well.
The three included variations are:
- Fisheye-Hemi 1 (Circle) works best with a lens and camera combination that covers 180 degrees horizontally across the field, so the captured image appears with black edges in the corners like a globe in space.
- Fisheye-Hemi 2 (Full Frame) works best with a lens and camera combination that covers 180 degrees diagonally, but the captured image has no black edges in the corners. This combination is commonly called a "full frame fisheye image".
- Fisheye-Hemi 3 (Cropped) works best with a lens and camera combination that covers less than 180 degrees, where the captured image appears almost normal with mild fisheye distortion.
For a list of cameras and lenses that Fisheye-Hemi supports and Image Trends Inc.’s recommended variation to use Click Here.
Fisheye-Hemi offers some very important features, features that can make a major difference in how your fisheye images turn out once you go and correct the fisheye effect. Since Image Trends can explain this better than I can, I will quote directly from their web site.
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The most important requirement for Fisheye-Hemi is to not distort people, no matter where they are in the image. The faces and bodies must appear as normal as possible; given it is a fisheye lens! The Fisheye-Hemi Plug-In preserves the people.
Another important feature of Fisheye-Hemi is the clarity of the mapping. A rectilinear mapping will discard approximately one third of the pixels and crop to the center along the horizontal axis. Photographers purchase a lens to capture up to 180 degrees. Much of the data is discarded in a rectilinear view. Fisheye-Hemi uses almost all of the pixel data in that view. A rectilinear view will shrink the center of the image which has the most detail. Fisheye-Hemi preserves this detail by using advanced mathematics to preserve all of the content of the original fisheye image.
Additionally, a rectilinear projection discards much of the framing of the image as composed by the photographer through fisheye lens. Fisheye-Hemi preserves all of this framing; what was seen on the top and bottom of the image in the viewfinder is included in the processed image.” |
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Now I use my Pentax 10-17mm lens quite a lot, it is as I said a lens that is a lot of fun to use. I especially like it indoors as it allows you for example to capture nearly an entire room in a museum, or everyone in the room at a party as well as doing some incredible outdoor shots. I have to say that Fisheye-Hemi filter has done an incredible and very pleasing job on all of the images I have run through it.
What impresses me the most is that it does this kind of top notch job automatically with the only input from the user being the choice of which of the three variations of Fisheye-Hemi filter to use. I don’t know how many times I have tried a fully automated plug-in that is supposed to do this or do that to your image all at the click of a button only to have it not work so good with many images and work great with others. Fisheye-Hemi actually works great every time I have used it and that in my book is impressive.
I had a very well experience photography friend of mine try Fisheye-Hemi out too. I wanted to get the opinion of someone that has a lot of experience in photography and not just digital photography but film photography including large format. Here is what he had to say about the Fisheye-Hemi plug-in.
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As a photographer with more than 40 years of experience first with large and small format film and now digital I can honestly say that one of my favorite lenses has been my Pentax 10-17mm fisheye. It is a very well made and optically superior lens that is a great deal of fun to use. Why I like the fisheye effect it gives my images there are certain images that can be improved by the lessening of or the removal of the fisheye effect, just as there are images that are improved by the fisheye effect.
Fisheye-Hemi 1.1.1 for an all automatic fisheye distortion correction filter is not only easy to use, but does a great job. It doesn't try to correct all of the distortion in the image, just the areas that matter I like this level handed approach. This not only allows you to make your images look better but enables you to have a corrected image that isn't mangled around the edges by the heavy handedness of other such corrective filters. Fisheye-Hemi 1.1.1 is aces in my book and a filter I appreciate having in my Photoshop arsenal, for the $29.95 price tag it can't be beat. |
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Normally, I have sample shots spread through out a review. For Fisheye-Hemi I have decided to create a small gallery of before and after examples. These examples are bellow. All of them taken with my Pentax K10D and the Pentax 10-17mm fisheye lens. I think you too will be impressed at what this $29.95 Photoshop plug-in can do. I know I am impressed and I know it has become a very important part of my Photoshop arsenal. Fisheye-Hemi is available for both Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Samples - Roll Mouse Over to See Before and After
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