Lightroom Removes Barrel Distortion from GoPro Wide -- Tip

[Robert Rose]

Since there is recent interest in taking single shots with the Solo, here is a tip for those of us who would like to remove the fish eye distortion in the Wide images, while retaining the 12mb benefit of the sensor, and get a rectilinear 4000x3000 image with no props to remove in post-processing. It is like changing a 15mm fish eye lens into a rectilinear lens.

Yes, you can get a non-distortion lens from Peau Productions, but that is $140 + a $50 software change to the GoPro profile to remove pink at the edges. If you don't already have Lightroom, however, there is a cost and learning curve associated with it.

Lightroom has a profile for removing distortion from a GoPro 12mb Wide image:



Here is an example. In this 12mb wide image you can see a prop:



Just by checking the profile correction box you remove the field curvature and the prop is no longer in the FOV of the rectilinear image:

 

[FL_Kim]

Yes, Bob, this is a nice feature in Lightroom and there are many fine adjustments you can make within that setting. However, all it does it stretch the image and things like the trees in your example photo look deformed at the bottom corners. If people, cars, boats, etc. are on the peripheral of the frame, it looks really weird. So, my recommendation is to keep those type of objects in the center of your frame if you want to use the correction tool. However, it works well with water in the background. Another option is to shoot in 4K at a smaller field of view and take photo captures from within Final Cut.
Also, Alex4D makes a free plugin in for Final Cut Pro to fix wide angle distortion on video as well. Here is the link: Alex4D Wide Angle Fix
The modified GoPro lenses are the way to go in my opinion. So I'm savin' up!
Cheers,
Kim

 

[Maddog]

Bob- thanks for the tip. When I bought Power Director, it came with a free 30 day trial disk for Lightroom 3. I never used it but now I'm wondering is this a stand alone program? I have been using Photoshop Elements 9 (yes, I know its for us lightweights) which I still haven't learned to use well. Does Lightroom complement this?

 

[pyrate]

elements is up to 14 I think
I use it and premier elements on my surface pro i5
it is great for field edits