Many of us enjoy taking photographs in the urban environment. Classic iconic buildings, monuments, infrastructure, they all make excellent subjects for our lenses.
There is an issue though. The space in cities is often tight. Buildings close together, busy streets, street furniture, often mean that we struggle to get good shots. Even when we can get the shot, we often run into one of the more frustrating elements of photography, converging verticals. Today we are going to look at several ways that you can either avoid them, or correct them in editing.
What Are Converging Verticals?
When we are taking a photo of an upright subject, if we tilt the lens up (or down) the vertical elements of our subject will start to converge at the top of the frame. If done with deliberate intent, this can give our images quite a dramatic look. However, often we are looking to record our subjects with a more natural look and seek to avoid them.
That can be difficult in tight urban environments where we might be using a wide angle lens to try and encompass all of the building into the shot. The closer we are, and the wider the lens, the more we will exaggerate the converging verticals.
There are times when we must simply accept that we cannot overcome the issue and incorporate them into our composition. However, in many cases there are ways to overcome converging verticals. This can be done with the use of a specialist lenses, changing perspective and by the use of software. Let’s kick off with the lens.
Perspective Control Lens (PC)
Sometimes also known as a tilt-shift lens, these lenses allow you to change the plane of focus on the sensor. A traditional lens will allow light to pass through, perpendicular to the sensor. In a PC lens you can adjust the angle away from 90 degrees, effectively warping the way the image falls on the sensor.
Because a PC lens will have very fine control, you can eliminate the effects of converging verticals with careful adjustment of the focal plane.
They are by far the most effective way of correcting verticals, especially in tight spaces. They are however relatively expensive lenses and are more suited to the precise work of architectural photography than day to day use in the city.
Change Your Height Perspective
For many of us a perspective control lens is not easily justified. However there are ways that you can try to alleviate and even eliminate converging parallels by changing our perspective.
The first way is to get higher. If the area around our subject is tight then look for a way to get higher to it. This might be from the window of a building opposite, or by climbing some steps as I have done in the example below.
The key is to find the right height. Go too high and you will simply reverse the effect with the converging verticals heading to the ground rather than the sky. To get the best results, you need to be around mid height to your subject. So if your subject is a 5 story building, then around the 2-3rd floor will be ideal. You are aiming to be square on to the centre of the subject.
Change Your Distance Perspective
The other perspective control technique is to move back. This is not always a possibility but when you can, it will give you the best, easiest to control option.
By moving back and using a longer focal length, we can dramatically reduce the effect of converging parallels and in turn give a pleasing depth and a more compressed perspective to our image.
This can be done by walking back up an adjacent street or across a square. Wherever you can find space to move back and increase the focal length.
Converging Horizontals
Before we look at the software option to control converging verticals, let’s look at one other, often understated issue, converging horizontals. This occurs when we don’t have the focal plane of our sensor, directly parallel to the subject.
Whilst not quite as visually jarring as a vertical, converging horizontals can still give our images a subtle, not quite right look to them.
The ways to overcome this are similar to verticals. Moving further back will reduce them as well standing central to the subject and keeping the lens square on.
Software Correction
Most modern editing software has tools for correcting both vertical and horizontal parallels. There is a caveat though, it’s not perfect and you will need to think about the use of editing before you take the image.
The most important aspect is that you will need space around your subject at the time of taking. This could make the converging verticals even worse in the unedited shot, however it will give you leeway to better correct them.
Most modern editing apps have lens correction/transform tools and there are also dedicated plugins such as DXO Viewpoint that add even finer control. To demonstrate how it works, let’s look at Lightroom Classic.
The tool is found under the Transform section and there are several options. The first is the automatic correction. Clicking on vertical will attempt to correct any vertical lines to perpendicular. It’s very hit and miss though and not the best option.
The next is to use the Vertical slider. This will adjust the vertical plane of the image allowing you to fine control how upright the verticals will look. There is much more control over this tool allowing you to fine control the look
Lastly we have the Upright Guide Lines. This is probably the most accurate way of correcting the verticals. You simply place two lines along the edges of the verticals you wish to correct and Lightroom will make an automatic adjustment. You can use this control to correct converging horizontals as well.
It’s important to know that in all these tools you are going to have two issues. The first is that the image will need to be quite heavily cropped. The second is that you will see distortion in the image. If for example your subject is a perfect square, when you correct the verticals it will become oblong. You can alleviate this to a certain extent using the Aspect Ratio slider, however there will always be elements that look slightly distorted. You can see a clear example in the sample images, where the right hand door now looks smaller than the left.
Converging verticals can make images look off, slightly jarring unless made with intent. However, these days it’s not super difficult to alleviate or eliminate the problem. For the finest, most accurate control, a perspective control lens is the way to go. However, that is also the most expensive route.
If you have space then going higher or further back is a very good option. The last resort is software correction, but don’t forget to leave space and be prepared for some distortion in the final image.
Further Reading
- How to Straighten Converging Verticals in Your Photographs
- The Truth About Converging Verticals in Architectural Photography
- Lightroom Lens Correction And Transform – Why You Need To Use Them
- Learn How To Capture Better Architectural Photos With These Resources
- Looking For Some Great Lightroom Tutorials – Check These Out!
