This & That: DOS Ain't So Bad      by Elizabeth B. Wright   December 2004   In the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, I used a paint program from Electronic Arts. Being a DOS program, it didn’t have all the neat tools we expect in our art programs today. But what it did have was the ability to apply perspective to drawings. My computer was so limited that even with that program I didn’t have access to everything it offered. However, the perspective option was possible and very intriguing. I have been looking for it in the programs currently available. The newer versions of Paint Shop Pro have it as do probably some of the other high end packages. And while we generally are working with photos now instead of pictures we make ourselves, the need for the tool remains the same, in fact, possibly even more so than before. As we take pictures, especially when traveling, there often is little time to compose the picture adequately. In fact, sometimes it is impossible to get the proper angle for a good picture. So many times we just have to point and shoot and hope we have something worth remembering.   Buildings are especially hard to photograph. Many historic buildings are big and in old cities, where it usually is not possible to get far enough away to get the entire structure in one ground-level picture. While you can see the entire building with your eyes, the camera lens usually won’t “see” the whole thing. In addition, churches usually have spires and other old buildings often have towers or spires. For this reason we usually end up changing the angle of the camera to encompass as much of the building as possible. There are technical explanations for what happens to pictures when that occurs, but all of us have seen the results. Pictures that appear quite distorted in relation to what we think we were seeing at the time. So we are usually somewhat disappointed in the outcome. Enter the photo fixes available to us now.   Perspective was one of the first lessons I learned in art class in grade school. Come to think of it, it may have been the only lesson I learned. I definitely am not an artist. But the idea of looking off into infinity somehow appealed to me. Even if infinity was only the horizon line or up into the sky. What I learned was that distance changed the physical representation of objects, but our brain usually understood the illusion. Cameras, unfortunately, don’t apply reasoning and the perspective shows up as an aberration in the picture.   With perspective tools in photo programs such as Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint and some other lesser-known programs, we are now able to manipulate a photograph in such a way as to simulate something akin to what our brain interprets the picture to be. The steps are not all that easy to learn, but with patience and practice, they can be mastered. I have included two pictures which have been changed to show what can be accomplished, even with just a little practice. The one downside to the operation is the almost inevitable loss of some of the outside edge details. A picture will have to be cropped after the alterations are made, thereby losing some of the original image.   The picture of Big Ben, in London, was taken from inside a tour bus and it was a matter of getting that view or none. After applying the perspective options, I also enhanced the color of the picture. While not a great photo, it captured a moment in our vacation that was enjoyable for us. I used a combination of programs to get the results. The Roman Forum picture was edited with PhotoImpact Pro 8.5.                                         Elizabeth Wright is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the eMonitor