Barrel distortion / fisheye

An image bulged outward through a wide lens, with straight lines bowing toward the edges and the center pushed toward you.

fish eyelens bulgebubble lens effectpeephole camera lookwide lens warpGoPro curved edgesimage bowed out in the middlebarrell distortion

See it

Live demo coming soon

What it is

Barrel distortion makes image magnification decrease toward the edges, so straight lines bow outward and the center appears to bulge toward you. A fisheye lens uses a much stronger wide-angle projection, capturing an unusually broad view with obvious curved geometry.

Reach for this family of warps when you want a peephole view, action camera energy, a skate-video lens, or the curved glass of an old screen. A radial lens-distortion shader is the usual real-time tool.

Gotcha: barrel distortion and fisheye are related looks, not exact synonyms. A fisheye also implies an extreme field of view and a chosen projection. A simple radial bulge stretches edge details and exposes empty corners, so overscan the source and keep faces away from the rim.

Ask AI for it

Apply a centered radial barrel-distortion shader to create a restrained fisheye look: bulge the middle, bow straight lines outward toward the edges, and increase the warp smoothly with distance from the center. Overscan the source enough to hide empty corners, preserve a sharp center, and add only a faint edge vignette.

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