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Horizon Lines and remembering the Rectangle
My tripod is cheeeeeap. Anyone who wants to buy me a really really expensive one with all the bells and whistles, please feel free. lol.
One thing to remember when framing a photo in your camera viewfinder is that your camera takes a photo which is a rectangle. One thing that is worth thinking about is whether your shot is better as a long rectangle or a tall one.
Take this shot, for example: it's a thin tall subject, so it's probably better as a tall rectangle. Taking it as a tall rectangle also allowed me to remove some other very colorful objects which were in the background if I took it as a long rectangle, and which I felt took attention away from the green ball.
There's an issue, though. My cheapie tripod head won't tilt quite all the way over. This means that the horizon line of the fence is at an angle. Usually I try to remember to adjust the legs of the tripod to compensate, but I forgot this time.
Remembering horizon lines is especially important when you are taking shots of water, such as the ocean. While it is possible that this fence is actually at a slant, the ocean never runs at an angle, and your mind knows that. It usually makes a shot a bit less effective.
The solution? I used my editing program to tilt the picture so the fence is straight. Paint Shop Pro XI has a great straighten tool which is very handy for this.
The background is that awful magenta color because I usually put a color as my background which matches nothing in the picture, so that I can clearly see the edges of my picture when cropping. It's also really useful for some other editing as well, so I just make it habit.
Then I crop the picture. I want to keep the base of the pillar the ball is standing on, so I end up with a bit of the magenta background. I use the clone tool to fill this in, and Voila! A little sharpening and clarifying later, and I have the picture I want.
Comments
About a year and a half ago, I nearly threw my 20-year-old $40 Velbon pan-tilt monstrosity through a window after seeing the results of a shoot. Instead, I went in search of the Final Ultimate Solution to the Tripod Problem.
FUSTP turned out to be a Gitzo 2258 carbon fiber beauty with a Kirk BH-1 ball head. It cost me a kilobuck, but it was a good investment, and it will probably last me a couple of decades. I have not once regretted a single cent of it.
LMAO. Speak of the devil, my tripod lost one of its feet yesterday somewhere in the snow on a four mile hike... no chance of finding it. It will still work, but it's just one more point down against it. bleh.
On the upside of things, I was heading for a flea market at the other end of town at the time, and I found a tripod there that I can use. The big advantage is that it is the same size when folded down as my current tripod, but has the weight that my cheapie lacks. It also has a lot more range of movement of the legs, so at the very least I anticipate I will use it when hiking up in the mountains!
The brand.... lol, a Velbon. However, it only set me back $7.50, plus $9 for a quick release platform. So I am very pleased, as I have been totally broke for aaaages, and there is no way that I could afford your tripod (although it has given me a serious case of tripod envy).
What happened in your shoot that made you so frustrated with your Velbon?
BTW, on the image above, I think I would have straightened the post rather than the fence. It's personal preference, though.
How did the tripod cause such a curvature? I don't understand enough about tripods yet.
Yes, I see your point about my pic. It might have been the more appealing choice to straighten the post, especially as it is nearly perpendicular to the fence anyhow, and is more of a focal point of the picture.
Or I could have just found a better "horizon" picture... like, perhaps one with an actual horizon in it. lol
This wasn't the first time. It was the last time.
Not that I know anything about photography (although would like to), but I actually like the original picture with tilted post and angled fence!