Adobe Lightroom has a nifty little checkbox called ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ in its Develop Module  in the ‘Lens Correction’ section.

Have you ever noticed it?  Well, if you haven’t, I encourage you to check it out!  It fixes a problem common to many lenses called ‘Chromatic Aberration’.

Here’s the dictionary definition:

Did you get that?  If that didn’t make sense, here’s another way of describing the problem.  You may notice that with some lenses, you’ll see some magenta or green fringing of colors on edges.  It may be more noticeable on some lenses vs others.  And it usually will be more visible when you open up the aperture to lower f/stops.

Take for example, this photo I shot in Rocky Mountain National Park on a trail, using my Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens. When you view the whole photo, you may not notice the chromatic aberration, but it is there.

But if you look carefully, in the upper left corner, among the Aspen trees, you will see magenta and green fringing along the edges and the middle. It’s pretty noticeable, really bad in this case.  THAT is the effect of chromatic aberration!

So imagine you took this image and decided to make a nice large 20×30″ print to hang on your wall.  Once you get the large  print, you’ll REALLY notice the problem.

That is what that ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ checkbox is for in Adobe Lightroom, to attempt to eliminate the annoying magenta or green along edges. It usually does a pretty good job.

Simply checking that box, really cleaned up the problem pretty well.

So, remember, especially if you plan on making any large prints of your photographs, you should first check to see if you have any chromatic aberration problems and check that little box!

Happy Picture Taking!

Kevin Gourley