Lean to the left

C

catamaran

Catamaran
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Jun 16, 2009
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Over the last few years, I've developed a tendency to consistently frame images with a slight lean to the left, on nearly all images; especially those with references of horizon or lines that show the tilt. It's been annoying to find so many images with a slight tilt down on the left, usually just a few degrees. I'm not sure why I developed this anomaly in my framing, and I'm not so much looking for solutions (I just compensate to the right when I think about it). I keep finding that when I get busy, or careless, I'll have a roll of images that are exactly what I wanted, but tilted. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this. I'm in my 60's, and this occurs with any of my cameras, or film formats.
 
Don't know if this pertains to what you're seeing, but it's a known issue that "lean to the left" images can result from not holding the camera rock steady when pushing down on the shutter button, which is usually on the right side of the camera (when looking thru the viewfinder). You press down the shutter, thereby slightly lowering the right side of the camera, and so when you process the image on the negative, it ends up being tilted slightly to the left.

Best,
-Tim
 
^^^^^^^^^^
Yes, because the image on the film is upside-down and reversed...
A View camera is a camera that shows you the what the lens does to the image at the film plane.
 
Well my friends tell me I'm 'half a bubble off' but seriously, I've always had a problem with horizons. Must be why I prefer matte screens with grid lines when I can get them. (Like the 1-10 screen I have in all my OM bodies)
For pinhole I use sight lines and a bubble level.
 
I have too! I am not sure why but to counteract this, when shooting digital I always have the artificial horizon turned on to help me compensate when framing. Trouble is even with it on and level I then feel (that is, my body feels) as if I am out of kilter. I have to fight the urge to compensate the other way.

And sometimes when in a hurry I lack the time or forget to make the check of the artificial horizon. The saving grace with digital is that my post processing software (both Lightroom and Corel Paintshop Pro) have horizontal correction filters that work brilliantly. I use these a lot any way, because unless standing exactly direct on to some subjects such as subjects that are square, or vertical, or have horizontal lines those subjects can look tilted or otherwise distorted. So I habitually correct for this as a part of post processing.

Hey a late thought. Maybe in my case because politically I am tilted to the centre right so in photography I try to compensate. Well, its a theory.
 
Fortunately, I haven't had this problem. However, I have observed that when I use a camera with a waist-level finder, especially on a tripod, I am much more sensitive to/aware of alignments than I am with an eye-level finder.

- Murray
 
Are you having back problems of some sort? I have a slight bit of scoliosis as well as disc problems and my horizons seem to match the bend in my spine.
 
After checking with a tripod and you find you still are off handheld, I suggest a visit to your chiropractor. Many people have or develop a head lean.
Mine was there in 6 th grade when I thought my glasses were off. they were not. I did not realize the problem until I was 73.

Guaranteed people over 60 have balance issues and poor posture. I really suggest you go for a tune up.
 
I had an extended but enlightening discussion about "straight horizon personality" people vs. those who don't care. She pointed out that concern about level horizons was a good indicator of a person's photo style and also of their overall personality. She was a photo instructor who pretty much dismissed everything technical as minor importance compared to the emotion and message conveyed by the photo. We thought a lot alike. She sidestepped the level horizon issue by shooting almost everything at an angle so her work had few horizontal or perpendicular lines. I did not realize I did the same until she pointed it out. Then she compared our style with her ex-husband, an excellent photographer who was a still a good friend of hers as well as mine. He was ultra precise with everything in life as well as his photography. She said the contrast of her artistic free flowing style and related personality was one of the reasons their marriage did not last.
 
get a soft release and trip the shutter with the middle of your finger squeezing the camera as a whole rather than plunging down on the shutter release.
 
Are you right handed and left eye dominant? In target shooting, that almost instinctively induces a tilt. For photography, that means jamming your RF camera against your nose. Maybe also the tilt thing.
 
I've put P screens in all my Nikons that I could, they give me the reference lines I want and not to many to distract me from composition.

I haven't seen it as an issue for me, but I'll add it to the list of things to worry about.

Note to self, Nbr 6942 to worry about, not shooting horizons straight.

B2 (;->
 
I tend to have main subject on the right. I think, it is due to my political orientation.
 
In my case, I see this most often when it is getting to be time to have my eyeglass prescription updated.

Dante Stella's post (#11) about left eye dominance and right handed-ness makes sense to me as well. How or if that also applies to photography, I don't know but the part about holding across your body's center-line as it were, seems pretty logical.

Add the posture concerns and increasing age and I begin to get why my own photos tend to get this slightly off kilter horizon.

I had a stroke just about a year ago and that lead to the biggest change in my eyeglass prescription in the last 35 or so years--I have astigmatism and the correction for that changed by 10 or 11 degrees. After having been effectively unchanged for all my previous life.

Rob
 
What type of camera are you using? I had a 21mm finder that I was using and it would drive me crazy, every frame was tilted. Bottom line the finder was rotated a bit, got a new finder and no more tilted images...

Joe
 
Bob Michaels said:
I had an extended but enlightening discussion about "straight horizon personality" people vs. those who don't care. She pointed out that concern about level horizons was a good indicator of a person's photo style and also of their overall personality. She was a photo instructor who pretty much dismissed everything technical as minor importance compared to the emotion and message conveyed by the photo. We thought a lot alike. She sidestepped the level horizon issue by shooting almost everything at an angle so her work had few horizontal or perpendicular lines. I did not realize I did the same until she pointed it out. Then she compared our style with her ex-husband, an excellent photographer who was a still a good friend of hers as well as mine. He was ultra precise with everything in life as well as his photography. She said the contrast of her artistic free flowing style and related personality was one of the reasons their marriage did not last.
Click to expand...

I too place the "emotion" in an image way above technical perfection. And I don't mind a tilted horizon - so long as it is obvious that the tilt is a deliberate part of the composition. But if it looks accidental, I think it too often looks like sloppy photography and I will want to correct it.

Same with perspective correction (buildings tilting over backwards) and with verticals. Buildings especially, but if not taking the photo from a position square on that usually means choosing one line or edge to make vertical and understanding that others will be off vertical just because that is how the physics of light and the reality of making 2D images of 3D objects works.

Here is a kind of example. I made the far left line vertical which made everything else tilt due to my angle to the building. This was deliberate and a square on shot of the same subject would have lacked dynanism and been boring.

Hong Kong Reflections by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Other images would just fail badly if the horizon were off.

Red on blue by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
Hi,

Just wondering if artistic free flowing style covers OOF shots and poor exposure etc? It sounds a wonderful one excuse fits all screw ups excuse. I hope it hasn't been patented...

Regards, David
 
Many Thanks

Many Thanks

Bob Michaels said:
I had an extended but enlightening discussion about "straight horizon personality" people vs. those who don't care. She pointed out that concern about level horizons was a good indicator of a person's photo style and also of their overall personality. She was a photo instructor who pretty much dismissed everything technical as minor importance compared to the emotion and message conveyed by the photo. We thought a lot alike. She sidestepped the level horizon issue by shooting almost everything at an angle so her work had few horizontal or perpendicular lines. I did not realize I did the same until she pointed it out. Then she compared our style with her ex-husband, an excellent photographer who was a still a good friend of hers as well as mine. He was ultra precise with everything in life as well as his photography. She said the contrast of her artistic free flowing style and related personality was one of the reasons their marriage did not last.
Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone for so many thoughtful replies. Bob this one in particular struck a chord as I'm in that meticulous of detail type, always straightening pictures, everything in it's place. While I will still be aware of the tilt, and cant deny I'll be trying to 'fix' it; this line of thought helps me see the results in a different light, and will help me be less likely to always see an image as a fail, just because it has that slight tilt.

Again thanks for all the replies.
 
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