Need help with Staright Horizon

[morenoar]

I had to get another 10d and lens to continue my work. I have a question for everyone, especilly sport shooters. How can I corect an issue with keeping my Horizon Straight when taking pictures. i hand hold all my shots and when I look at them, or my boss looks at them, the players look like they are running up the hill. Some of them are bad and some of them are realy bad..I will post some if you need to see them. Just have to upload them to PBASE


http://www.pbase.com/morenoar


I will have them posted in about 5 minutes.

Thanks

[toddb]

I use the PhotoShop "Measure tool" (it's under the eye dropper tool). Draw a line with the tool on the horizon and then rotate the entire image with "Rotate Arbitrary" under Edit->Rotate Canvas in the menu.

[morenoar]

ToddB, thanks that is helping me correct my photos after I take them. I still need to correct when I am taking shots. I don't want to go and use a monopod all the time

[robertwgross]

Don't use a monopod, but do use a tripod with spirit levels on it.

Most photographers get a crooked horizon because they are not looking through the viewfinder straight. This can be true for any photographer, but it is especially true for those who wear eyeglasses.

On my camera, I get completely different horizon results depending on whether I use my right eye or left eye.

---Bob Gross---

[DaveG]

I had to get another 10d and lens to continue my work. I have a question for everyone, especilly sport shooters. How can I corect an issue with keeping my Horizon Straight when taking pictures. i hand hold all my shots and when I look at them, or my boss looks at them, the players look like they are running up the hill. Some of them are bad and some of them are realy bad..I will post some if you need to see them. Just have to upload them to PBASE


http://www.pbase.com/morenoar


I will have them posted in about 5 minutes.

Thanks

I think that this just a situation where you know you have a problem and you have to practice your way out of it.

I know that when I teach basic composition - rules of thirds, fill the frame and such - the student will show great improvement after a few shoot/criticize cycles. But I also see that it'll break down as soon as they get in a big hurry, exactly like shooting sports.

They are so focused on the action that they lose their limited grip on composition, and the composition in your case involves being aware of the horizon. After you do a lot of practicing and shooting sports, this overt thought process and skill will move from your "thinking" brain, to the part of your brain that pushes the letter "s" when you touch type. You sure as heck didn't think "s", it just happened. I don't think "rules of thirds" when I shoot sports, and like the letter "s", it just happens too.

So the next time you shoot sports be aware of the horizens. Correct yourself during the shoot. It won't be perfect at first but with practice it will get better.

[PacAce]

To see if it's you or the camera, you might want to place the camera on a horizontal surface, like a table, and take a picture of the edge of the table. If the horizon isn't level, you have a camera with a misaligned sensor and should have it taken in for servicing.

[mjordan]

What I have started doing is using the focus square. I only use the center focus point and when I focus I use the top line of the square as a guide against the horizon or other horizontal object. Most of the time, unless I forget in the rush of taking action shots, it works.

As Bob pointed out, it's worse for those of us that wear glasses and I noticed it got worse when I switched from film cameras with 100% view finders to the D30 and 10D with their less than 100% view finder. I almost never had this problem with my film cameras.

Mike

[eric1]

i see the 5 horizontal focus points as a straight line, this helps me keep the cam level.

[Murph7355]

Practice. The only way.

I try and find obviously "flat" reference points (horizons, some buildings etc) and use the upper and lower edges of the viewfinder against these references to check that it's straight.

If you practice on some obvious scenes, forgetting the sports bit for a while, you'll get more used to the feel of the camera when it's straight. Do this enough and it'll eventually become second nature when you're shooting your chosen subjects and you won't have to think about it, allowing you to focus more on the action.

Are you finding that they always tilt one way? If so, just force yourself to dial in corrections.

Sorting them in PS is relatively easy, but you lose some image size. I also think it's much better trying to get a decent shot out of the camera rather than expecting to fiddle with it later.