I got an email the other day from someone asking how to keep their horizons straight. It might seem like a question that is quite easy to answer, or to fix, but I don’t think so.
Spirit levels may feel like they are the answer to this question, and although they are useful aids, particularly if one is dealing with a really bad ball head, or perhaps failing eye sight, they do not work all of the time.
I have found may scenes I wish to shoot cannot balance because the horizon line in the frame is actually a false one. Even if I were to balance the camera with gravity, the horizon line is not straight. The only way around this is to try to assess the horizon line against the edge of the frame of the camera. I tend to use the sides of the frame and evaluate the horizon line against. Even so, I still never get the horizon perfectly level. I do however, get closer to it.
But some scenes just have false horizons: the lake edge that rises in the frame as it recedes into the distance for instance. There is no fixing for this, and even if I were to get the edge of the lake level in the camera, everything else would be skewed.
reflections are vertical in this shot. But I shot the original image pointing up at the sky, so the reflections were converging. I had to use Photoshop’s Transform tool to correct them.
I do try to ‘see’, to acknowledge these issues whilst on location, but it is hard. I always tend to notice them once I’ve returned from a shoot.
If I were a digital shooter, I would be using live-view to help me assess the level of the picture. Crouching down and tilting one’s head sideways never works, so it is always best to evaluate your composition with your head level. You cannot balance anything if you are looking into the frame sideways.
For what it’s worth, I would try to stop relying on the built in spirit level of the camera, for one simple reason. While you are looking at the spirit level, you are no longer looking at the picture. The better practice in my view, is to look at the picture and try to relate it to the edges of the frame. You’ll be able to assess the balance more correctly because the balance of the scene is related to the placement of the subjects within it. In other words balancing a scene involves balancing the composition.
And once home, use the level tool in Lightroom or Photoshop to help you fine-tune it.
But please note that most pictures can only be balanced to a point. A compromise must be met between balancing a false horizon and the subjects within the picture. Balance the horizon and the trees now start to slope. Balance the trees and the horizon is lop sided. The solution is, if one is keen to keep the picture, is to try to see if having both slightly out may be enough of a compromise for the image to justify its existence, otherwise you should chalk it up to a learning experience to pay more attention to false horizons and how they interact with the subjects within your frame.
Also consider that there are inherent distortions when pointing the camera up / down that can cause trees and any other subject that is vertically upright to appear to be falling backwards. Pointing a camera down can cause tree reflections to fan out at an angle. These disturb and interfere with the balance of the composition and can also cause the scene to feel as though it is not level. The solution is to pay attention to the distortions and figure out if they are aiding or killing the balance of your scene. If they are, then a compromise is required: either don’t tilt so extreme, or perhaps think about investing in a tilt-shift lens. Using the lenses rise / fall movement will allow you to keep verticals straight, whilst still be able to look either up or down.
Leveling a picture it turns out, isn’t such a straightforward thing to do, and often requires us to practice visually checking if the verticals as well as the horizontals are going to disturb our perception of balance in the frame, and that takes plenty of practice and trial and error.