Garden photos using a fish-eye lens

For our own interest, I take photos of our garden every month as a record of our progress and the changes we make – I have been doing this for about 20 years and 3 different properties. This year I have been making use of a fish-eye lens that I purchased earlier in the year:

vegetable garden

In an image like this, the distortion produced by a fish-eye lens isn’t too noticeable – most people wouldn’t see anything amiss with such an image (although gardeners would be aghast at the weeds – my excuse is that I have had a busy August and September and weeding has had to stop. I have made a start again though…)

However, when you have man-made structures in the garden, such as sheds and houses, the distortion is very noticeable:

showing distortion

You can see the corners of the house and shed are curved. My panorama stitching software can fix this but it needs a minimum of two images – you can’t stitch just one photo! I get around this by taking two similar photos with a lot of overlap and stitch these together:

stitched image

Now the buildings are straighter. Its a pity it is so cloudy but autumn is upon us…

Author: Paul L.G. Morris

I am an amateur photographer whose photography is mostly of gardens, nature and the rural environment. My specialities are close-ups, panoramic views, or a combination of both that I call 'Nearscapes'. I work mostly for my own interest having closed my business PM Studios Ltd.