Fished or Defished? Which do you prefer?

Hamish · Forum Veteran Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 1011

Here is a pic from last year which was taken with a fisheye, hence the distortion and exaggerated wide angle effect:

And here's a version which has been (fairly) defished, although there's still a little distortion present:

I know which one I prefer. However, I'd be interested to hear what others reckon, in particular from fellow fisheye users like MikeD and Roo. I've processed the images slightly differently so there's a difference in the colours as well, but I'm only interested in whether you prefer the distorted version or not.

Although most of you will likely not care as it's jey-boy XC Wink

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Hamish · Forum Veteran Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 1011

And, for reference, here's the capture NX version which is equivalent to if I'd used a standard rectilinear 10mm lens:

Not very good at all!!!
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JAW · Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:37 pm Post subject:

For me it would probably have to be the (fairly) defished one, becuase it has the same positive elements just with a more subtle look. If you know what i mean...
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dan_deelux · Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:00 pm Post subject:

i prefer the defished one, can't tell you exactly why, it just looks a bit better to me

Roo · Forum Master Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 442

There really isn't enough of a difference for me to prefer one to the other. IF I really had to, I would say the first because in the 2nd, some of the fishyness has gone but the wheel is still out of proportion which gives the bike a 'sit up and beg' look to it when it's actually a normal bike. The first one doesn't have the same effect because it's more obviously a fisheye where you expect the distortion.

Really not a lot in it though.

dandantheadminman · Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

i prefer 2nd, but id perosnally prefer the distortion from fisheye left in

just my opiniion
it adds interest
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mikedeere · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:30 pm Post subject:

In my honest opinion, there's more distortion in a straightened out rectilinear image than there is in the original fisheye shot.

If you think about it a fisheye makes a lot of sense, it's recording all the light at the correct angles and that's that. Once you try and straighten out a fisheye image you're effectively stretching pixels to do so, causing a more damaging distortion.

For this reason I do prefer true fisheye images, the key being to frame your subject in a complementing manner to the lens. If you were using film, you'd be back out there re-shooting the shot and no amount of digital darkroom is going to re-record the light.

And as Roo said, there's really not much in it at all between the two images. The Capture NX version has a lot more accurate perspective, but obviously has to crop to avoid the horizontal vignette at the top and bottom.

Swings and roundabouts...