Question about straightening the Horizon

[NikonNewbie]

If you are taking the picture on an angle and something (a bridge) appears slightly crooked...do you straigten it? I took some pics yestrday and I was playing around in photoshop and since someone told me about straightening the horzion I've been hitting all my shots with it....but my husband said this just doesnt look right anymore...
here is the original (I have other ones where that branch isn't hanging down...but this is the one I tried to change the line on)

this is the straightened and cropped one

 

[oldmacman]

When you have a structure like the bridge at an angle to the the buildings, use verticals as your guide rather than horizontals. Actually, if there are verticals in a shot at all, I tend to use those lines for straightening so I don't get fooled. Except in extreme cases, verticals are always vertical.

 

[NikonNewbie]

When you have a structure like the bridge at an angle to the the buildings, use verticals as your guide rather than horizontals. Actually, if there are verticals in a shot at all, I tend to use those lines for straightening so I don't get fooled. Except in extreme cases, verticals are always vertical.

so to me the 1st shot has vertical lines, Ill try to photoshop it with the vertical lines in the first pic.

 

[oldmacman]

so to me the 1st shot has vertical lines, Ill try to photoshop it with the vertical lines in the first pic.

Yeah. If you are going to use PS, bring up the rulers and drag in a vertical guideline near the building. You are only off about one degree as shown by the red areas.

 

[Josh66]

Yeah - the un-edited one looks straighter.

It doesn't look like the bridge is parallel to the sensor, so it won't necessarily be straight and level. The side of the building though, will pretty much always be going straight up.

Vertically, up is up... Horizontally, the object has to be parallel to the sensor/film plane.

Notice how even after the image is straightened using the side of the building, the top of the building is not level? That's because neither face of the building is parallel to the sensor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_(photography)

 

[NikonNewbie]

So because of that is this shot just a wash?
I had a similar problem with a pic of rock with a love message I took, the river (creek) bank is not straight...it actually does not follow a straight line, so I did the measuring the bank and it really knocked most of the pic away after the crop, but I can't tell if it even looks right now, it looks better tho because the original was really sloped looking...There isn't anything vertical to go by,
See...
this was before, and I was holding the camera as straight as possible. The rock was straight ...or the writing...

this was after a straighten based on the river bank, and then a crop

am I not getting it?

 

[Josh66]

So because of that is this shot just a wash?

What do you mean?

I didn't mean that it was bad, or anything like that - just that you picked the wrong element of the photo to base the straightening off of.

And your second set of pictures - the un-straightened one looks better to me.

Every picture you take doesn't have to be perfectly straight & level...
Sometimes it's OK to have tilted horizons. It all depends on the particular shot...

 

[skieur]

If you are taking the picture on an angle and something (a bridge) appears slightly crooked...do you straigten it?

Yes. It's viewer's impression when he/she looks at the photo, that counts and the viewer does not really care whether the angle or landscape made it difficult or impossible to get a photo with everything straight.

skieur

 

[oldmacman]

So because of that is this shot just a wash?
I had a similar problem with a pic of rock with a love message I took, the river (creek) bank is not straight...it actually does not follow a straight line, so I did the measuring the bank and it really knocked most of the pic away after the crop, but I can't tell if it even looks right now, it looks better tho because the original was really sloped looking...There isn't anything vertical to go by,
See...
this was before, and I was holding the camera as straight as possible. The rock was straight ...or the writing...

this was after a straighten based on the river bank, and then a crop

am I not getting it?

It's only a problem when the level of the image is close, but off just a little. When level doesn't matter, like your rock shot, I would go more for a pleasing composition and not worry so much about being level. Maybe think of another way to frame the shot so background imagery doesn't impact the composition.

 

[NikonNewbie]

So because of that is this shot just a wash?

What do you mean?

I didn't mean that it was bad, or anything like that - just that you picked the wrong element of the photo to base the straightening off of.

And your second set of pictures - the un-straightened one looks better to me.

Every picture you take doesn't have to be perfectly straight & level...
Sometimes it's OK to have tilted horizons. It all depends on the particular shot...

Ok! thanks, thats what I wanted to know! :blushing: I have a weird round about way of asking what I want to know...so, it's ok if they aren't all level and straight and level?

 

[Josh66]

Yeah - as long as it looks the way you want it to, it's all good.

Like someone said on here once (can't remember who, or what thread it was in...) - if you have to tilt your head to look at it, it doesn't work. Sometimes, intentionally making it crooked works.

There's no set rule on it (and even if there was ... rules were meant to be broken, you just should know why you're breaking it). As long as it looks 'right', or conveys the feeling you were going for, it's all good. :thumbup:

 

[Chamelion 6]

I personally shoot things in odd angles because it, to me, often adds interest to the photo. But it's an esthetic question. You have to step back and ask whether it's adding to the image or detracting from it. Too many perfect verticle or horizontal lines just get boring...

That said, some things almost always detract because they just look unnatural. At the top of the list is water, like a river or a lake, or so on. Water always finds it's own level. If you shoot something at an odd angle so that the water line is out of level it's almost always going to make the image look off, even if the main lines are running true. Something in the brain says something looks off even if it doesn't always regester specificly what it is.

In the images here your water level looks to be on an unnatural slope. That's the part of the photo that needs to be level.

 

[skieur]

Yeah - as long as it looks the way you want it to, it's all good.

Like someone said on here once (can't remember who, or what thread it was in...) - if you have to tilt your head to look at it, it doesn't work. Sometimes, intentionally making it crooked works.

There's no set rule on it (and even if there was ... rules were meant to be broken, you just should know why you're breaking it). As long as it looks 'right', or conveys the feeling you were going for, it's all good. :thumbup:

Actually there is a set of rules or guidelines if you prefer and that is the consensus of the views of successful artist/photographers on the artistic and technical side of taking a quality photo. Ignore them in my business, and it costs you money.

skieur

 

[dylanstraub]

I had to laugh when I saw the first picture because I've been to that spot several times trying to get the best shot and that bridge is always a bit off. And it's not exactly the best area to place a tripod (what with all the rocks there). If you go a little ways up the path you can capture some interesting shots under the bridge as well. It kind of opens up and I got a nice perspective shot there once. As to the first picture, It was off by a degree and I didn't notice till you mentioned it.