Newbie - Picture Question

[JoshuaScult]

Hi friends,

Here is a picture I shot with my Olympus. You can see the paper is curled. Is there a software filter for Photoshop or stand alone that can fix this and other problems anyone may notice here:

[Tim]

It looks like you've got keystoning and page curl. Keystoning happens when the camera is not centered and parallel to the page, and can be fixed with the perspective tool in Photoshop or the Gimp. There are plug ins for Photoshop and Gimp that handle page curl, but they involve laying a grid over the page and estimating the distortions that are needed to fix the page.

Fixing those problems in software is painful and time consuming enough to essentially be the motivation behind all the hardware plans on this forum. When fixing images with software, you basically have to adjust your technique for almost every image individually. In contrast, acrylic or glass platens hold the pages flat to reduce or eliminate the page curl, and mounting the camera at the right place and angle can nearly eliminate keystoning. You don't really need much hardware to avoid the problems you've got. Some cardboard, a piece of glass or acrylic, a tripod or other way to mount the camera, and some lighting could go a long way. The more involved designs here basically just optimize the process and increase quality and speed.