Barrel distortion is a curving distortion that happens to vertical lines when using a wide angle lense.

Barrel distortion can be improved by using any photo editing program that has tools to correct camera lens distortions. Adobe Photoshop was used to illustrate this tutorial, but other photo editing programs have similar tools. Check your software’s HELP menu as the tool may be located under a different menu, or called by another name.

Original with barrel distortion

Barrel distortion corrected

How to correct barrel distortion

This tutorial illustrates the technique using the Perspective and Free Transform tools in Photoshop 7:

Perspective Tool

1. Select the Perspective Tool (Edit menu > Transform > Perspective). Once the Perspective Tool is selected, pull one of the upper handles to the right (or left).

Free Transform Tool

2. A subject tends to shorten when using the Perspective Tool so, next, use the Free Transform tool (Edit menu > Free Transform) to drag the middle of the photo upward. Some cropping of the image will occur.

It is important to correct barrel distortion on a full sized image. Only after the distortion is corrected should an image be further edited such as adjusting brightness and contrast, cropped or sharpened.

Check your photo editing program HELP menu for special detailed instructions.