Leveling?

[AaronLLockhart]

This is more of a curiosity thread more than anything else. What is you all's idea of leveling? What becomes level to you, and what doesn't?

Let me elaborate. Just because your hot shoe block level and tripod levels are showing plum, doesn't mean that your subject will be in the viewfinder. I used to worry about where my tripod and hot shoe levels were sitting, but now I rarely even pay attention to them (in fact, My hot shoe leveler stays in my bag most of the time now). I mean, to me, the only time they will ever make a true difference is if you know for a fact that your subject is completely level as well. So, I use the grid view in my viewfinder to level my subjects now. I find a horizontal and vertical line to follow, and make sure they match up, and then I shoot.

You all's thoughts?

 

[tirediron]

Me-all thinks the same as you. Visually level is more important than technically level.

 

[HughGuessWho]

I have a hot shoe level, a level on both my tripod and ball head and a built in electronic level on my 7D and none of them will ever agree. I just use them as a starting point and go with it.

 

[Trever1t]

I never use a level, I eyeball it in camera as much as possible, correct when necessary after.

 

[Kolia]

Like the others, I use the level in the EVF and adjust according to the subject.

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

I'm pretty sure it was Pentax, they released a new camera that has a digital leveller, it shows in live view mode and it has a line through the middle. ANd if you tilt your camera the line will tilt the same way. SO you can determine the straightness of your pic

 

[HughGuessWho]

I'm pretty sure it was Pentax, they released a new camera that has a digital leveller, it shows in live view mode and it has a line through the middle. ANd if you tilt your camera the line will tilt the same way. SO you can determine the straightness of your pic

My Canon 7D has that feature, but I would love to see someone to use it to get set to "level" for a pano.

 

[Garbz]

I would have to say that I've rarely found a case where the camera is not level yet the picture *appears* level. Buildings, trees, etc naturally tend to attempt to grow vertically. In the off case that I have inadvertently attempted to level according to some landscape that wasn't actually level I have always found something in the frame ended up looking skew.

 

[bratkinson]

Since most of my shots are indoors, I simply 'straighten things up, a bit' in post. I simply line my crop tool up with a wall, door, table, whatever is considered 'true'. The trick, however, is to figure out what -is- true, when shooting from an angle. Before I finally crop the picture, I may decide to 'fudge' a bit on what is horizontal or vertical, as sometimes, parallel vertical lines seem to be converging (keystoning) and so I end up 'splitting the difference' in my cropping to get a visually pleasing result.

 

[rexbobcat]

The electronic level on the 60D is genius. I use it ALL the time.

 

[EDL]

I wasn't aware photos are required to be level......

 

[AaronLLockhart]

I wasn't aware photos are required to be level......

A photo isn't required to be anything. It isn't required to be perfectly exposed, centered, leveled, or even correctly focused for that matter.

However, it is a strong recommendation that they are all of these things. Maybe it's just me, but I can't stand to look at a photo that I have to tilt my head 45 degrees to the right or the left to have correct perspective on the image...

 

[KmH]

Not level usually just looks sloppy.

Then there are those that tilt the camera on purpose. Most of those photos just look more than just sloppy because the purposeful tilt is rarely done effectively.

 

[rokvi]

For man made objects I aline with the verticals. If they are off the pic will usually seem off.

 

[Big Mike]

The one that bothers me the most, is when I see a photo with water on the horizon and it's not level.

It creates a visual tension...it prevents the viewer from being able to enjoy the image like they should.