Straightness - or not in my case

Rob87

Rob87

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Rob
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Something that I have noticed in most of my photos is that they all appear to be going off at an angle either left to right. I have tried to make sure that I line it up nice and straight in the view finder, but when i get home, the images appear to be going off at an angle. I can obviously fix this by rotating the image to compensate, but was wondering short of getting a spirit level type thing which is pointless for me as I don't have a tripod or take scenery photos, is there a way of getting my photos straight first time without the need to rotate them?

Thanks as always
 
You don't say what camera you have, some have aids to help with this.
 
Think you can get a viewfinder with a horizontal line on it.

I know it does some folk's heads in but I really can't get excited.
 
Sorry, canon 600d
 
There's a digital level available which shows LEDs. It slips into the hot shoe (flash mount) and is just visible with peripheral vision with the camera to the eye. When the green LED shows, the camera's level. These days, all the cameras I use have levels built in and I find them a godsend since I used to have real problems stopping the sea falling out of the sides of my shots!

Most viewfinders have some sort of composition aid in the viewfinder (sorry, being a Nikon user I'm not sure if your camera does) and even the AF point outlines can be used to help get horizons level.
 
You know the AF points - use those.

The 600D has AF points in a diamond shape, so use the outer points left and right as a composition aid. If those are not where you want your horizon also the 'mid' points on the edges of the diamond are fairly good for this task too as long as you have a level point of reference.
 
doesnt the 600D have built in spirit level in the lcd? i know the 60D does

( ahh just checked nope but it does have grid display in live view which you can use
 
and if you want to spend a little more ( around £20 ) you can get a digital hotshoe spirit level that has leds ( great for at night! )
 
I too have this problem and it seems worst with wide angle shots. I find I have to make sure the anything I use to lie up on is in the centre of the frame as the lines on the edge of the frame are distorted and lean in or out.
 
Glad to see its not just me with this problem.

I will try using the AF nodules in the viewfinder ( I only use centre focus point so may take some training to do) to see if that makes any difference first before I go splashing the cash for a balancer.

Thanks for the replies
 
Do all your focus points show, even if you only have centre active?

Personally I never found the bubble any use handheld.
 
Not managed to have a look yet but I'm pretty sure all the af points will show on the camera but my eyes wil have just got used to them being there so filter them out.
 
Which way do your photos slope? Are they consistent with the left hand side higher than the right? If so, it could be a sign that the act of pressing the shutter button is causing you to depress that side of the camera.
 
Both ways. It's more noticeable towards the right which could account for the shutter but I would say a third of the wonky ones lean left
 
Oddly, since I've been using cameras with levels built in, I'm finding that I'm generally holding the camera level as it hits my face. I'm guessing that it's a case of muscle memory or similar and I'm just getting better at holding the things (after 30+ years, I bloody should be!)
 
This is something I can not remember having a problem with.
Like every one, I shoot the odd scene with conflicting visual messages and make a wrong choice. and some times the action going on takes away my mental fine tuning.

I have turned off the artificial horizons in my cameras as I find them distracting.

we all have the ability to know when what we are seeing is upright, as part of our balance mechanism... it is all a matter of practice.
 
That's another possibility! When I was ill, my balance was poor (to say the least) which might account for wonky horizons.
 
since my surgery which resulted in a stoma on the right ( but a permanent numb left leg ) i do notice i favour weight on certain side depending how im standing which often results in a slight lean.
 
I'm generally 0.5 degree out with a left rotation needed, even when I try hard. Scarily this transfers to hanging prints on the wall as well, but fortunately both things are easily fixed!
 
I find I have to fully look around the frame to get images level [or as near as!] Mine often need a little tweak but I's imagine most peoples do too so I don't worry about it too much. I find landscapes/side angle worse too as said by someone else but in those cases I find using LV I can get a much more accurate horizon :)
 
The electronic level indicator fitted to some Canon cameras is only accurate to 1 degree and a horizon tilted at this angle will still appear obviously tilted.
If you are using the viewfinder, then taking your eye away from the viewfinder to look at a bubble level is no guarantee that the camera will still be level when you put it back to your eye.

Tilted horizons is something I've suffered from and the only way to avoid them (other than using a tripod with a geared head) is to take care when composing.
I use the focus boxes as an aid, but observing the scene carefully when composing the shot is the way to overcome the problem.
If I "grab" a shot quickly it's still likely to be tilted, so I usually make sure there is enough space around the subject to give room to straighten it in PP.
 
One thing I had noticed I was doing was that even when I tried to get the horizon level, it was tilted down to the left. I even questioned if it was the camera, but tried it on a tripod and they were fine so knew it wasn't the machinery.

I slowly worked out that as I was pushing the shutter, I was subconsciously dropping my right hand/pushing too hard on the button and thus tilting the camera - only by half a degree or so...

After figuring this out I changed my technique/strengthened my left hand grip and can now get pretty level photos, but accept that some may need tweaks in PP...
 
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