Tilted Horizons

[J.W. Wall]

<p>Another vote for the grid. And in postprocessing, at least Lightroom 4 has a very easy and effective angle adjustment tool. Drag a tool over a horizontal line in the image and it is automatically straightened and re-cropped. </p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>John, John & Mendel - me too on that left-eyed thing. Hmmm.</p>

[William Michael]

<p>I am “right eyed”, in so far as I have always been comfortable using my right eye to the viewfinder of an SLR or Rangefinder: however when shooting football on the weekend, whilst I was still at Technical College learning Photography, one lesson I was taught by a seasoned Newspaper Photographer, was to keep my left eye open.<br>

When I changed my gear to Digital SLR I found this more difficult to do as the viewfinder seemed quite a deal darker and or smaller, so to concentrate adequately I was closing my left eye much more often.<br>

My first DSLR was an EOS 20D<br>

I think that many of the previous comments here, about how there was no tilting with film and now there is tilting with digital has a lot to do with the general difference in the quality of the detail of the image we now see (or first saw) in the viewfinder, with digital and that has a lot to do with us changing our techniques and in doing so, some bad habits have encroached.</p>

<p>WW</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>I'm right handed but left-eye dominant. Not sure it's affected my tendency to tilt with some cameras.</p>

<p>Looking over my recent photos taken with three different cameras, the only factor I can identify that seems to really matter is the ergonomics. The only camera of those three, which is also relatively new to me, that has a conventionally placed shutter release button on top with a straight-down press is the one I tend to tilt. The other two have slightly forward angled shutter releases and subjectively feel better to me. But I'm also much more experienced with those two.</p>

<p>Also, the new-to-me camera is my first experience with a camera that has no optical viewfinder. It does feature a nifty level indicator to help with both level and pitch, but I find myself fretting too much over trying to keep it precisely level and missing the timing on shots.</p>

[john_macpherson]

<p>I ask because I've noticed a predominance to tilt in left eyed dominant photogs. I have no idea why!</p>

[peter_gaunt]

<p>Have you got a grid you can turn on in the viewfinder? My D7000 (and my D80 before it) had such a thing which I leave on all the time. It's also possible to assign it to a function key so that I can turn it on only if I need it. In the D7000 there's also a 'virtual horizon' available on the live-view screen or, via a function key, in the viewfinder. I find the latter invaluable when taking landscapes. As others have said, it's possible you're tilting the camera when you press the shutter - if you can't use a tripod then try to get into the habit of sort of squeezing the shutter release instead of pressing it.</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>To add to the sympathy, I was terrible at getting level horizons with my Eos 300D. With the grid on in the finder of my D700, I'm much better. For some reason, a grid in the finder seems to help more than just lining up the edges of the frame, even if I'm not putting the horizon on the grid line. Possibly, with a 5D, you could aim to bisect the focus points with the horizon and use that as a guide? I've been known to use the electronic level on the D700 as well.<br />

<br />

I do have a hotshoe spirit level, but I can't say I've used it much, mostly because I spend so much time not using a tripod (and my tripod already has a level). I might pay more attention when I eventually get a 5x4. For some reason I might be surviving without for my 645, but that might be just that I'm slower than with my digital, or that I'm not peering so closely at the output.</p>

[aaron_mccormick]

<p>Maybe he's just looking to fix what he's already stuck with at this point? <br /> <br /> In that case, Mendel, if you do not mind messing with the picture, you can use Photoshop to either add lens distortion or warp/ stretch the edges of the picture into place (near the corners) after you've rotated everything a few degrees.<br /> Sounds drastic, but in small amounts no one will notice the difference, and you would not have to crop the picture except for a tiny sliver or two near the corners. </p>

<p>I recommend drawing a selection and using Edit--> Transform--> Warp for isolating areas that won't affect other sections of the composition when you stretch them. But that's just something which has worked for me in the past.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>^ I fixed my horizons via with the levelling tool in Adobe Camera Raw, frustrating though: a lot of labour, and your pic get's significantly cropped.</p>

<p>Anyway, just received and installed the Canon Focusing Screen Ee (with the etched grid lines), and will give it a go.</p>