Tilted Horizons

[traildad]

What do you do to prevent or fix tilted horizons in your photos? It seems for me that I tend to have tilted horizons when I use my 720IS. Back in the day when I used film and printed my own photos in B&W I did not have this problem. I guess some of the problem was prevented by positioning the easel when printing. I can't seem to prevent this very well with my 720IS. I use Photoshop to rotated the image to fix it. I assume that I am losing some quality by doing this. What tips and tricks do you use for this problem?

[mullhawk]

that is exactly what I do is rotate and crop in PS, so if there is something better I am also interested.
assuming this is what you mean, maybe I misunderstood
old and crooked, straight from the S5
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/mullhawk/IMG_3757.jpg

Straightened out
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/mullhawk/straightened1.jpg

[Thomas S.]

The only quality that you loose when you correct for this in Photoshop is what you have to trim off the edge of the image from the rotation. Any other loss of quality could come from the compression settings in PS once you save the image. This is the standard way of correcting this problem.

To ensure your horizons are level in camera you can (or should be ableto) turn on the rule of thirds grid on the LCD, or use a tripod.

[cooltouch]

What Mullhawk and Thomas said.

It used to infuriate me, back in my callow youth when I shot slide film, when I'd get a batch of slides back and notice I'd have a tilted horizon on those that showed the horizon. It's just a matter of technique, ultimately. I finally got it through my thick head to pay better attention to the horizon when composing a photo. Problem solved. Fortunately, I can fix those old slides now, as the above two have suggested, when I scan them into PS or equivalent, and use the free rotation option. No image loss. You're just repositioning pixels.

Best,

Michael

[bjordan]

No image loss. You're just repositioning pixels.


The image does not suffer significantly, but there is loss. Unless you are rotating multiples of 90 degrees, it has to interpolate because there is not an exact pixel location for each (if any) of the pixels you are moving.

If there were no loss, you could take any image, free rotate it, free rotate it back the same amount, and it would be exactly the same. Try using free rotate twice on the attached image - one degree clockwise, then one degree anti-clockwise. Try doing subsequent rotations too. The more times you rotate, the more the original detail is degraded into other patterns.

This is an extreme example, but the problem with small amounts of quality loss is that they can add up. The contrasty details will be lost if you rotate over and over, so the moral is: if you rotate and get it wrong, UNDO and try again so those little errors don't add up.

EDIT: I don't use photoshop, so I don't know if it might be smart enough to actually "undo" when you do two rotations. You will still see patterns develop on the first rotation.

[Naturalist]

What do you do to prevent or fix tilted horizons in your photos?

I get it right in the camera before I trip the shutter.

[bjordan]

I get it right in the camera before I trip the shutter.

Lol, I was going to suggest that, but I'm too new here to be sassy. Plus, despite my best efforts, every now and then I screw up a picture that I really like otherwise.

[Naturalist]

Oh, we all screw up once in a while, but that's part of the learning process. :o

[traildad]

Lol, I was going to suggest that, but I'm too new here to be sassy. Plus, despite my best efforts, every now and then I screw up a picture that I really like otherwise.
Yeah. Sometimes easier said than done. I sometimes wonder if my LCD screen is off compared to what is captured. Rather than only say that it is best to get it right before you trip the shutter, what do you do to help get it right? I will try using the grid. I have tried using the focus square, but it is kind of small.

[bjordan]

When I rotate, I use the edge of another window dragged on top like a t-square to check it before confirming.

[traildad]

When I rotate, I use the edge of another window dragged on top like a t-square to check it before confirming.Yes in Photoshop I also use a tool and drag out a line to compare it with the horizon to decide if I have fixed it right.

[daniel_1234]

In Photoshop Elements, I choose View>Grid to put horizontal and vertical lines up temporarily. The vertical lines really help out with buildings, sign posts and such.

[mullhawk]

I just use the line tool and draw a straight line using the shift method and line it up that way,
that picture up top was when I first got my S5 and was really still learning, now I always try to make my horizon or whatever run parallel to the top or bottom of the viewfinder or lcd screen, but still I forget sometimes, or it ends up not being as straight as I though it was...

[hnikesch]

I was out last night finishing a round of golf and also trying to get a sunset while trying not to hold up play, Most of my shots were off angle even while using the grid. When just shooting I am not that bad because I spend more time in composition and watching the grid, that works for me.