It’s in the subject.
And, if you are using it, what are you using it to do?
I use it extensively! I use it to change the content of photos and to get rid of “black triangles” when Horizon, Perspective or volume deformation is used. I love it, it’s one of my favorite tools!
Used it a few times and did not like it: It’s not easy to use if results should look okay and then we get those kinks (not these)…
I currently use PhotoLab without FP and VP … and don’t miss 'em at all.
1 Like
I would use it if auto perspective modify that grid also so i could use it to fine tune a bit but not from scratch pushing and pulling squares.
Could be me but it’s too much a hassle for the result.
I never liked it because of the user inter face.
Could you post a mini tutorial how you build the correction?
Maybe we learn something. 
1 Like
Used it twice and not since as I found it so difficult to use.
1 Like
Hi Peter, Sure, I’d be glad to. I’ll put something together in a day or so.
1 Like
I don’t use it, but found this example :
2 Likes
I use it now and then to fill in areas lost through perspective correction, correct distortion due to perspective correction, or remove unwanted parts of an image at the edges. I’ve compared DxO’s implementation with Affinity’s and prefer DxO’s for my needs. My only gripe is that it takes practice to get the grid arrangement just right. But it’s not a problem. Also, if I need to use ReShape multiple times, I have to export to TIFF in between uses.
… which then also allows to copy picture content over black edges, using the ReTouch tool.
1 Like
I’ve not used it, other than trying it out … and finding it rather cumbersome.
But, this is a good suggestion - and I have in mind an image that I can use this with.
I don`t use it … an upscaling functionality or a better masking functionalities (including automask for background, main element & sky) would be more useful for me.
@Joanna
Why are you asking?
I must say: First I did not really understand the greatness of this tool and not even the new name for “a cloning-tool” but now I think it really is superior to what I have seen in the other tools I use. The think is that it has qualities that makes it possible to make things you want to vanish to do so even in quite complicated patterns in the background. Since Photolab shows that pattern when you use it, it’s possible to make pretty complicated replacements with it.
Compared to for example Capture One this is far far better if we compare CO:s cloning but CO has other tricks nowadays in the new AI-masking tools that even out these differences.
@Joanna was asking about the Reshape tool not the Retouch tool used for repair and cloning. They are two completely different things. The Reshape tool is added to PhotoLab via a Viewpoint license and let’s you stretch and reshape your images
I wonder if any of the other responses to her query are also confusing these two tools which have similar names in English.
Mark
1 Like
For me it was very clear … retouch is used very often and therfore it’s an important tool, but reshape? See above …
I have PL7 and Viewpoint 3, I don’t see this reshape icon in my toolbar. Do I need a newer VP, or do I need to change a setting in PL? I only see the parallel, 4 point and 8 point adjustment tools.
You need a VP4 license.
@Joanna
I misunderstood you. Thanks for pointing out this tool. I´ll absolutely find use for it and just tried it on a slightly bent horizon. I can have use for it there, absolutely. Gives good control if you chose i finer grid than the default.
@platypus and Joanna
Maybe I could live without Filmpack without any bigger problems but ViewPoint?? It is absolutely indispensable as I see it.
Here is a set of images from Al-Hambra in Spain where I used even Reshape. This is just quick and dirty 5-10 minutes the most.
Original unprocessed RAW
First step using “Rectangle”. Note the bent lower part corrected with Reshape
Final touch with Reshape to adjust the lower bent part of the image
I think it would be crippling your tool box a lot not to use View Point. I think that is maybe the most important tool of them all in Photolab. I take a lot of architecture images because it is one of my interests and I would trade almost anything in Photolab to keep it. I think serious postprocessing needs both Force Parallell, Square and Reshape and I will definitely use Reshape a lot from now.
I also think this is a pretty good example touching another earlier discussion when people talked about what we see IRL, through the lens in the camera and what the camera with the present lens actually manages to record on the memory card. It is definitely NOT what I saw IRL. Is the recorded image in this case “documentary”. In my opinion it is NOT. In this case the postprocessd image is far more what I saw IRL than what the camera recorded and that is in fact a problem when considering the definition of “unmanipulated image”. In this case the “unmanipulated” image right from the camera is in fact NOT at all “mirroring” the reality I saw with my own eyes without the camera.
In this case it really differed. This image was taken with my At IV with a Sony 24-105mm G-lens at 24mm. One of this lens weak points in the distorsion at 24mm. In order to correct it´s flaws correctly I really need it all there in View Point. They are absolutely wonderful tools and Reshape is really the icing on the cake.
3 Likes
Here another example from the organ in the Cathedral of Granada.
First the final image. This komposition and framing would be impossible to get right when standing there in the cathedral - especially with my 24mm wide angle set with my zoom.
This was the actual picture I took before using the Square and Crop tools.
1 Like
I use this occasionally. As others have observed, it is useful to subtly stretch sections of an image where perspective correction will otherwise leave black triangles with the ideal crop.
I also use it to fully correct geometry (lens and/or perspective). Sometimes this is because a lens is not supported and the manual lens geometry correction is not quite right. Sometimes because perspective corrections result in an image that might be technically correct but which visually feels a little off what it should be.
In all cases I usually use a relatively fine grid and corrections that are fairly subtle (certainly nothing anyone could point to as an obvious correction).
IMO, the reshape tool is one of PL’s core strengths when compared to other software. Unfortunately, I suspect not many people use it partly because you need the VP add-on, and partly because when it is used well it is not obvious that it has been used at all.
2 Likes