Wonky Horizon Lines

[pinupcollector]

Ok, I have a question... I posted some pictures in the people forum here. While I understand there are other issues in these pictures and with my editing, I have a question specifically about the horizon line. The horizon line shifts sharply to the right in the photos because of natural topography, how (aside of not taking the picture in this location) could I have made this look better? How do you deal with "wonky" horizon lines? I find this very difficult in this area because the whole area is extremely uneven naturally...

Suggestions?

 

[DanielLewis76]

Maybe you could have stood more to the left and then had them rotate slightly round so that the rock they are sat in front of has the mountain to the right of it as its immediate background. Probably only needed 1 large step by you and 5-10% rotation by them.

 

[AlexanderB]

Does not look like natural topology. Anyway you could rotate a camera a bit for a better composition.

 

[paigew]

idk it looks slanted to me. You can see the actual horizon in the back and yes, it looks tilted. Mountains aside.

 

[pinupcollector]

Ok, so let's say I'm on crack (always possible) and the horizon is not naturally tilted. Here is a straightened horizon.... (Forgive the editing, nothing has changed except the horizon and the cropping. I'm at work with limited tools.)

Or maybe, I am seriously not seeing this picture right? I'm so confused and not entirely sure how to word my question!! I'm trying to like a poor photo anyway.

1. the original: The family is standing straight, the horizon is wonky

View attachment 51903

2. The horizon is corrected and the family leans left...

 

[paigew]

Yes!! Way way better

 

[SCraig]

Sometimes YOU do what YOU feel looks best and the heck with the rules. It is, after all, your photograph and sometimes you can only do so much.

In this particular instance I might suggest trying a perspective correction, as opposed to a pure straightening, if your software supports it. A perspective correction (or keystone correction) can correct leaning in more than one direction so you might be able to get both the horizon and the people straight.

If not straighten the people and forget the horizon. Horizons in the distance might lean, people seldom do.

 

[KenC]

If not straighten the people and forget the horizon. Horizons in the distance might lean, people seldom do.

This^^^ In the mountains you will not see a straight horizon line. People need to get over it.

 

[cptkid]

Ok, so let's say I'm on crack (always possible) and the horizon is not naturally tilted. Here is a straightened horizon.... (Forgive the editing, nothing has changed except the horizon and the cropping. I'm at work with limited tools.)

Or maybe, I am seriously not seeing this picture right? I'm so confused and not entirely sure how to word my question!! I'm trying to like a poor photo anyway.

1. the original: The family is standing straight, the horizon is wonky

View attachment 51903

2. The horizon is corrected and the family leans left...

View attachment 51904

The second picture looks stupid.

Forget the horizon line, your subject is in the foreground.

If you're shooting landscapes, thats a different ballgame.

 

[DanielLewis76]

I have made a quick 2 minute edit with the aid of photoshop...

 

[DanielLewis76]

BTW i can see the horizon is as taken (can tell by the height of the hill in the back ground on the left). However, the eyes perception of the photo is that its all off kilter and makes it look odd.

 

[paigew]

The second picture looks stupid.

Forget the horizon line, your subject is in the foreground.

If you're shooting landscapes, thats a different ballgame.

The first photo looks crooked. I don't see why you think the second edit looks "stupid". There is a flat-ish horizon line VISIBLE, that needs to be straight. Also if you look at the rock formations on the left side of the frame you can see the bigest one looks off. I mean, I have never seen mountains in person, but I would think it should be somewhat symmetrical...not leaning.

Op I do agree that you should straighten for the people and in #2 the people look straight. In #1 they do not. Look at the boy on the far left. He looks straight now!

 

[pinupcollector]

I have made a quick 2 minute edit with the aid of photoshop...

View attachment 51954

I'm new so I apologize if this is a stupid question and, I don't have photoshop but I do have paintshop pro. How did you straighten the horizon on the right and leave the family straight?

 

[vintagesnaps]

What about cropping and eliminating the vignetting? I think what I don't like usually about that is it makes me wonder why is that extra space there? It's a beautiful scenic location but you might do better with a little less of it - that might also minimize the slope of the background. Less of the horizon line showing might help - I'd think about maybe not including the greenish-gray area to the lower right, it doesn't seem to add a lot.

Maybe next time try different vantage points, being a little more to the left to get more of the vista behind them might work, or the other way to not have much of the sloping horizon in the photo - or maybe even if you were scrunched down a little lower that might have given you a different angle so you weren't looking out and down quite so much. I'd probably try different crops of this and minimize the long horizon. But I tend to roam when I'm taking pictures so I'm often changing my vantage point til I see what I want in my viewfinder.

 

[DanielLewis76]

I am no photoshop expert but what I did was:

magic wand'd the offending area to select the portion needed to rotate
Copied the area to a new layer
rotated the layer to make it level
erased portions of the new layer that overlapped the main picture due to the rotation
merge the layers together
cloned the sky back into the gap left by the rotation
spot healed certain areas to blend the rotated bit together with the original

It was a quick and dirty bit of work and took about 2 minutes to do so would require a bit more work to make it print ready though.