The Easiest Way To De-Squeeze Anamorphic Photos

Cinematic Photography

Anamorphic lenses are commonly used as specialty tools that affect how images get projected onto the camera sensor. Though they were created to fit a broader range of aspect ratios within a standard film frame, cinematographers have become accustomed to their unique look. The visual result is a glorious nucleus of creamy horizontal flares and tender movements.

However, because of its technical functions, the anamorphic squeezes the image (and the bokeh) to produce an oval-like shape. It’s crucial to “de-squeeze” the frame to stretch the oval bokeh again as you would typically see it.

Here are a few ways to de-squeeze your images.

1. Using Photoshop:

Step One: Open up Photoshop and then open your DNG or JPG file (editing can be done first in another app).

Step Two: Select Image -> Image Size, this will open up a window to edit the image size.

Step Three: Click the lock icon to unlock your aspect ratio, then take the width (for landscapes) or height (for portraits) and a multiply it by 1.33. (i.e. 4032 -> 5363). It’s ok to round this number to the nearest whole number.

Step Four: Type that into box of the number you multiplied and leave all the other settings alone

Slide Five: Press OK and your image will be de-squeezed! Send your video file into your preferred editing software and make the greatest film ever made, no pressure.

2. Using Lightroom:

Step One: In Lightroom, edit your squeezed images with your preferred profile or preset.

Step Two: Then, crop your image to a 16x9 aspect ratio.

Step Three: Next, right-click your photo, click "edit in," and select Photoshop.

Step Four: Once you're in Photoshop, de-squeeze your image is simple. Go up to your toolbar and select "image size."

Step Five: Now, multiply the width of your image by 1.33, which is the squeeze factor of the Moment Anamorphic Adapter.

Step Six: This image was taken on my Canon R5, so I'll take that width of 8,192, multiply it by 1.33, and get 10,895.

Step Seven: Click OK, watch your image de-squeeze, and now, you'll never want to take portraits any other way.

3. The Pro Moment App

Again, we understand that not everyone has access to Photoshop so that the best alternative would be our own Moment Camera Pro app on iOS. You can easily De-Squeeze each image by tapping the "Apply De-Squeeze To Saved File" under "Settings".

If you are on Android, you can download PicTools from the Play Store, allowing you to free De-Squeeze photos.