To straighten, or not ...

[ottor]

This photograph appears to be a little crooked - click on preview image for larger view... I can assure you that the camera/tripod were level when taken. Due to the shore transitioning into the distance, and the higher mountain on the left, it appears to tilt a little. To make it a little more pleasing to the eye, should I crop to make it appear level, or leave it alone? It will be printed large ... 30x40.

 

[pgriz]

The reality of your position is not matched by the perception of viewing - so I'd say straighten it.

 

[tecboy]

It looks weird without straighten it.

 

[Designer]

You're in luck! The photo includes a built-in level! I'm not talking about using the far shoreline as a level line, because it probably isn't actually level.

The way to straighten this is to draw a vertical line through some point that is reflected in the lake. Those two points should fall on the same vertical line. This is how it looks after straightening:

 

[astroNikon]

wow, that really makes a difference to me

 

[tecboy]

This helps. Empire, 3 in. Line and Surface Level in Blue, 83-3 at The Home Depot - Tablet
Just put it on top of your camera.

 

[bratkinson]

Perhaps it's these old hands, but since moving from film to digital, it seems like most of my pictures are less than horizontal. Maybe I just didn't notice it before. So, making sure that horizontal is horizontal, and/or vertical, vertical, is necessary for most of my shots while post processing. I sometimes think that my computer screen is slightly crooked, too...I've never checked.

Human experience is that the horizon is horizontal...duh! When something we 'expect' to be horizontal, isn't, it just looks 'wrong' to us. That's why so-called 'optical illusions' are so troubling. What our mind is trained to 'see' or expect is tricked by what is seen in actuality. My favorite was seeing water seemingly run uphill in a gutter along the side of a 'trick' house of illusions. As the house was on a hillside, it was intentionally built 'slightly off' from horizontal. That way, with the gutter running between the bottom of two windows, our mind 'knew' the windows were square to each other, right? They were. But our mind 'knew' they were horizontal, as well...but they weren't.

Bottom line, if we 'expect' something to be horizontal, it should be! But then, how is it I don't mind if a couple of pictures on the walls in my house aren't hung perfectly level? Go figure.

 

[sm4him]

Perhaps it's these old hands, but since moving from film to digital, it seems like most of my pictures are less than horizontal. Maybe I just didn't notice it before. So, making sure that horizontal is horizontal, and/or vertical, vertical, is necessary for most of my shots while post processing. I sometimes think that my computer screen is slightly crooked, too...I've never checked.

Human experience is that the horizon is horizontal...duh! When something we 'expect' to be horizontal, isn't, it just looks 'wrong' to us. That's why so-called 'optical illusions' are so troubling. What our mind is trained to 'see' or expect is tricked by what is seen in actuality. My favorite was seeing water seemingly run uphill in a gutter along the side of a 'trick' house of illusions. As the house was on a hillside, it was intentionally built 'slightly off' from horizontal. That way, with the gutter running between the bottom of two windows, our mind 'knew' the windows were square to each other, right? They were. But our mind 'knew' they were horizontal, as well...but they weren't.

Bottom line, if we 'expect' something to be horizontal, it should be! But then, how is it I don't mind if a couple of pictures on the walls in my house aren't hung perfectly level? Go figure.

Remind me to never, EVER come to your house. :lmao:
It absolutely drives me to distraction when a framed picture on the wall isn't perfectly level. It can literally keep me up at night--one night, I was already in bed and was absolutely exhausted, when I noticed a picture on one of the walls had slipped and was hanging just slightly skewed. I pulled the covers up, closed my eyes and vowed to fix it in the morning. But I literally couldn't sleep knowing that picture was just hanging there crooked.
Yeah, I ain't quite right. But we all knew that.

OP: The straightened version is MUCH more pleasing, to me. When I have a photo like this, where the far shoreline--the "natural" horizon--is, by nature, not straight, then I start looking for how to orient the photo so that it "appears" straight.