How to achieve fisheye effect without getting the actual expensive lens?

A fisheye lens is an extremely wide-angle lens that creates a wide spherical image. Fisheye lenses have become coveted by photographers for their distorted and retro effect. Professional fisheye lenses can easily run you a couple hundred dollars. Anyway, this tutorial would be teaching you how you can achieve the fisheye lens effect without spending hundreds of dollars on acquiring the actual expensive lens. Basically we have two ways on achieving this kind of effect. You can either use the post-processed, Photoshop method which is purely digital or you can go on with the semi-analogue way of purchasing a peephole door viewer which will serve as the fisheye lens of your camera.

Step 1: Achieving Fisheye via Photoshop

I will be discussing first the Photoshop method of achieving the fisheye lens effect.


WHAT YOU NEED?


1) You need an image. However, you can't just choose any image you would want to apply the fisheye effect on. You need a little knowledge on perspective to make your image more pleasing when the fisheye effect has been applied to. It is advisable that the image you choose is in landscape orientation. It is also advisable to choose an image with less erratic angles. Less subject is also an advantage in achieving a natural fisheye look. But still, the decision is entirely yours.


2) Computer capable of running Photoshop. Currently my computer is set to run PS CS4. However, the tutorial that I would be posting here is on CS3 but the same process applies when trying to make the fisheye effect.

To further on this method, you may follow this link.

Comments

[chuybregts]

This is great! I have an old point and shoot and I recently replaced my peephole so I have an old one of those too! Time to tape them together and to get creative! Thanks for the idea!