Question re photographing album covers

[mjzee]

Every so often, I like to photograph an album cover to import into iTunes. The problem is usually one of perspective: after taking the photo, I find that the album's top horizontal line might be a little shorter than the bottom horizontal line, with the two vertical lines not being exactly parallel. There is also usually a slight "fish-eye" effect owing to limitations with the iPhone's camera. I'm looking for a good, hopefully inexpensive program for the Mac or iOS that can correct these distortions. I know it can be done because I have OCR apps for the iPhone that will do this; unfortunately, because the app does this to help prepare the image for OCRing, they don't look great as photos. I spent a lot of time last night poking around Photoshop Elements, Preview and iPhoto, but none of them have this functionality. Can anyone recommend a program or app?

[BFrank]

Why not just get the cover art online, like from AllMusic for example?

[mjzee]

Sometimes I like mine better.

[sonnymax]

If no one offers you a suitable app recommendation, might I suggest you look at the many inexpensive iPhone tripods? If I understand your problem correctly, you are unable to photograph the LP cover head on without some perspective distortion. Perhaps a tripod would solve your dilemma.

[BFrank]

Many iPhone camera apps have an option to turn on a grid which would help with the perspective issue.

As far as the "fish-eyeing" effect, you could move away from the album cover and zoom in. Zooming reduces the image resolution, but that won't be an issue for an album cover thumbnail.

Edited December 31, 2014 by BFrank

[alankin]

It's not clear if your problem is from lens distortion or "key-stoning" caused by the position of the camera. For the latter, try to make sure that the lens of the iPhone is centered over the LP cover and is on the same plane as the cover. As stated above, gridlines can help here.

Edited December 31, 2014 by alankin

[Shawn]

You are describing keystone, as Alan mentioned above you have to make sure the camera is exactly parallel to the surface of the album when taking the photo to keep this from happening. This same thing happens with projectors when you have to angle them up or down to project an image onto the screen.

[mjzee]

It is keystoning. But it seems a problem that software is uniquely suited to solve - much more so than trying really hard to make sure the lines are perfectly parallel while taking the picture. I know software can do it, per my OCR app. There must be a photo app or software that has this capability.

[mjzee]

I've found the capability in Photoshop Elements to correct keystoning. It's Filter/Correct Camera Distortion... or Filter/Lens Correction (depending on your version of PE). Very easy to do, with satisfying results.

[mjzee]

Here's an example of what I'm now able to do. Before:

After:

[sonnymax]

That's an improvement, but it's not nearly as good as it might be if you had the proper position/angle when taking the picture. Why not put a little effort in this area (like the inexpensive tripod I suggested earlier), then use the software to correct whatever minor distortions remain?

[mjzee]

Well, sure. I have a small tripod, but it can't be used with an iPhone. I know, there are attachments, but then you go down that slippery slope where there are always enhancements you can buy. What about lighting, for example? You don't want to see a glare spot on your cover, so you could get a small home photo studio like this one:

But at that point, you have a quasi-permanent set-up somewhere in your house, which is a lot of effort just to import a cover shot into iTunes. I'm trying to devise an on-the-fly solution. You're right that the cover I posted isn't perfect, but with practice maybe I can get closer.

[ejp626]

Well, sure. I have a small tripod, but it can't be used with an iPhone. I know, there are attachments, but then you go down that slippery slope where there are always enhancements you can buy. What about lighting, for example? You don't want to see a glare spot on your cover, so you could get a small home photo studio like this one:

But at that point, you have a quasi-permanent set-up somewhere in your house, which is a lot of effort just to import a cover shot into iTunes. I'm trying to devise an on-the-fly solution. You're right that the cover I posted isn't perfect, but with practice maybe I can get closer.

The way to improve this photo is if they were photographing Beenie Babies, to list them on eBay!

[Jim R]

I have bookmarks for numerous sites where you can find LP covers. This particular "Great Guitars" cover isn't that easy to find (the CD is easier, of course), but I did find this one at Discogs.com:

[mjzee]

I know; I usually check Google Images.

[Jim R]

I know; I usually check Google Images.

That's step 1. It's pretty amazing what doesn't show up on Google, though (like the one I posted above). I was always somewhat obsessed with finding covers that I thought were most appealing to me (usually images of original LP's without "OJC" and such on them), and I gradually discovered that it can sometimes take a lot of searching. I've got around a dozen sites bookmarked, some of which are better for certain labels and eras.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Jim R

[mjzee]

I found an app in the Apple App store that does exactly what I'm looking for. It's called DxO Perspective. Getting promising results right now.