PTLens

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PTLens is software that corrects lens pincushion/barrel distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration, and perspective. The following are supported:

• PC (Windows 2000 or later, screen resolution at least 1024x768 DPI 96)
  • Standalone application (JPEG, 8 or 16-bit TIFF)
  • External editor for Lightroom (JPEG, 8 or 16-bit TIFF)
  • Plug-in for Photoshop (any 8 or 16-bit RGB image)
  • For further instructions view the ReadMe file included in the download

• Mac (MacIntel OS-X 10.5.2 or later, screen resolution at least 1280x800)
  • Standalone application (JPEG, 8 or 16-bit TIFF, Raw)
  • External editor for Lightroom/Aperture/iPhoto (JPEG, 8 or 16-bit TIFF)
  • Plug-in for Photoshop (any 8 or 16-bit RGB image, Photoshop CS3 or later, PSE 6 or later)
  • Plug-in for Aperture (JPEG, 8 or 16-bit TIFF, version 2.1 or later)
  • For further instructions view the ReadMe file included in the download

View examples of PTLens at work, watch a video of PTLens in action, and download the software for a free 10 image trial. Click on the picture for more images of Antarctica.

Historical Note

PTLens is the first application to automate distortion correction. It all started on August 20, 2002, when I posted the following message in a news group:

What I need is a batch program that reads EXIF information from a JPEG
file, looks up the closest match in a table, and automatically corrects
for distortion.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

Nobody volunteered so on September 19, 2002, I released version 1.0 of PTLens. Several years and 30,000 lines of source code later PTLens has evolved from a simple DOS command-line program to an easy-to-use application and Photoshop plug-in that corrects distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration, and perspective. The "table", referred to in the above quote, consists of more than 2400 separate calibrations — far more than any other application. Site DpReview has compared PTLens with DxO and Photoshop CS2 (I've since improved vignetting).

See a review for PTLens at Digital Outback Photo and articles in Dutch, German, French (PC), French (Mac), Italian, Japanese, and Czech. PTLens is designed to correct distortion in architectural photographs as illustrated in Jeff Lynch's blog and Ian Bramham's published image.

Tom Niemann
Portland, Oregon
epaperpress.com