Shooting straight.

[Betty LaRue]

I use my in-camera grid to make sure my horizons are straight. But I often find the image is slewed a bit from the left or right side of the camera being closer to my face than the other side. It is harder to straighten in LR, and when I do, I have to crop white space out.

 

What do you do to keep both ends of the camera on the same plane? It’s starting to drive me 🐿 (take your pick, nuts or squirrely)

Betty

[DCSmith]

For critical work, a tripod.

[Betty LaRue]

I shoot quite a few storefronts, I don’t use a tripod for that because of visibility and not wanting to gain attention. 

[Michael Ventura]

5 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I shoot quite a few storefronts, I don’t use a tripod for that because of visibility and not wanting to gain attention. 

That makes sense, would not use one for that purpose.  It’s not so easy to shoot perfectly level pics handheld.  I just fix things in editing software.

[Betty LaRue]

Just now, Michael Ventura said:

That makes sense, would not use one for that purpose.  It’s not so easy to shoot perfectly level pics handheld.  I just fix things in editing software.

So I’m not in the minority? 😁

[ReeRay]

I don't know what camera you use but mine has a rule of 3rds grid I can impose on the viewing screens which ensure all is kept level also. 

[wiskerke]

You're not shooting film are you?

So why not correct it in post. Takes about 5 seconds.

If you insist in doing it in camera: turn on the level or virtual horizon plus the checker board or guide lines or whatever your camera display is offering.

However the problem you will often encounter when standing in front of a shop window with all lines straight, is that your reflection will turn up right in the middle.

A solution to this would be a shift lens. Or stepping aside a bit, shooting skewed and correct it in post. Which is where we started. 😁

 

Ok one more possibility: do turn on the virtual horizon (Fuji-speak) plus the guide lines and hold your camera at waist level with two hands on either side; tilt up your display  and look down Rolleiflex/Hasselblad style. It's really stable and if you hold your hands underneath the camera with your thumbs on top, squeezing the release button with your right one, there's much less risk in dipping the camera to the side while you press the release button. Added bonus: you look much less conspicuous than with a camera in front of your face.

 

wim

[Betty LaRue]

40 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

You're not shooting film are you?

So why not correct it in post. Takes about 5 seconds.

If you insist in doing it in camera: turn on the level or virtual horizon plus the checker board or guide lines or whatever your camera display is offering.

However the problem you will often encounter when standing in front of a shop window with all lines straight, is that your reflection will turn up right in the middle.

A solution to this would be a shift lens. Or stepping aside a bit, shooting skewed and correct it in post. Which is where we started. 😁

 

Ok one more possibility: do turn on the virtual horizon (Fuji-speak) plus the guide lines and hold your camera at waist level with two hands on either side; tilt up your display  and look down Rolleiflex/Hasselblad style. It's really stable and if you hold your hands underneath the camera with your thumbs on top, squeezing the release button with your right one, there's much less risk in dipping the camera to the side while you press the release button. Added bonus: you look much less conspicuous than with a camera in front of your face.

 

wim

Great advice, wim, thank you. I’m pretty good not dipping it down when I press the shutter, but somehow I’m pulling one side back. Or pushing one side forward.
Have you ever walked a dog that is going straight ahead but it’s rear end isn’t straight behind its front end? That’s my camera, only it’s from side to side. I’ll try waist level and see if that fixes it, or makes it easier.

Funny thing, I had something going on like the wonky dogs, recently. I’d walk straight ahead but my body felt slightly turned to the right. A physical therapist found my pelvis was severely rotated out of place. When she corrected it, I felt a big “thonk “. I have an exercise to keep it straight, now. I do it religiously, and I feel straight again.

Maybe that gremlin passed into my camera! 😊

[John Mitchell]

I hang a barbell from my left ear. Just kidding, I usually shoot first and straighten later when processing.

[Inchiquin]

I haven't been able to shoot straight for years. Rotating the image in Photoshop is usually the first thing I do when processing.

 

Alan

[Niels Quist]

8 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

So I’m not in the minority? 😁

 

Definitely not. I normally leave space to adjust - also the vertical lines. Get furious if there is a great image I cannot adjust sufficiently.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Niels Quist

[John Morrison]

My pictures, out of the camera, tend to have a slight tilt, always in the same direction, even though they look straight to me as I press the shutter. I've always assumed this to be the result of have just one working eye.

 

In post I straighten the horizon first - it takes seconds - before correcting verticals...

[Ed Rooney]

How interesting, so much bad advice on one short page. I'm trying to find something I agree with but can't.

 

Betty, are you using the camera's viewfinder or the back screen to view? Walking around outside (and inside) to capture casual, real-life images, when shooting in a busy part of a city or village market, a tripod would be more of a problem than a help. Higher ISOs and image stabilisation are our digital tripod. (I do sometimes use a real tripod for some other effects.) 

 

The majority of people I see on the street with a camera don't know how to carry or hold one. I always use the viewfinder, even on my little Sony RX100/6. I press the camera tightly against my face and my head is back a little so the camera is over the core of my body. And the grid of 3rds is showing. Even if I wanted to, I could not count on using the back screen; I have Essential Tremor. And . . . on the back screen you lose visual intimacy.

 

Lining things up perfectly and getting a self refection? Maybe I want things to be lined up and maybe I don't. And more often then not I can remove the reflection in Post. I always test perspective control in LR. I once had a better app but it seems to have disappeared.

 

I owned Rollies and other 6x6 cameras. They were great for studio or controlled location shooting but not for Travel or Street. In the '70s, I turned down a big job doing a shoot of China because the client insisted on me using 6x6. 

 

 

[spacecadet]

How about framing a bit looser than usual so that you have leeway to crop out the white space after doing the horizontal correction. I assume you have "constrain crop" ticked in LR- if not it saves a bit of time.

[Ed Rooney]

Now that's a good tip, Mark. Someday, maybe, I will learn some basic digital craft.

 

I don't think lining things up perfectly would have made a better image of the pub below. And I often use my very-wide lens to introduce some dramatic distortion. 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat]

I am more OK than I used to be when shooting horizontal but my verticals are very dizzy-making. 

 

Paulette

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

I assume you have "constrain crop" ticked in LR- if not it saves a bit of time.

+1

 

Mark

[Michael Ventura]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

How interesting, so much bad advice on one short page. I'm trying to find something I agree with but can't.

 

 

 

Wow, I didn’t realize we were all giving such bad advice.  My apologies Betty.

[Ed Rooney]

Not you, Michael. LOL

 

The sharp remark was aimed at getting attention. 

[Betty LaRue]

5 hours ago, spacecadet said:

How about framing a bit looser than usual so that you have leeway to crop out the white space after doing the horizontal correction. I assume you have "constrain crop" ticked in LR- if not it saves a bit of time.

Mark, I’ve never understood what “constrain crop” meant, so I’ve never touched it. If I don’t understand something, I avoid it like the plague in case I might mess something up.

Lol, it comes from the time I got my first computer, self-teaching, and got myself in some horrible messes I didn’t know how to back out of. I finally wrote down every single step I did so I had a roadmap to reverse my actions.

What does constrain crop mean?

Betty

[SFL]

16 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I use my in-camera grid to make sure my horizons are straight. But I often find the image is slewed a bit from the left or right side of the camera being closer to my face than the other side. It is harder to straighten in LR, and when I do, I have to crop white space out.

 

What do you do to keep both ends of the camera on the same plane? It’s starting to drive me 🐿 (take your pick, nuts or squirrely)

Betty

 

@Betty LaRue

 

Hope I didn't misunderstood your question/frustration.  When I do interior photos, which is fairly often, I always use a tripod with Nikon D800's built in digital spirit level.  However when I edit, I often use LR in order to correct verticals precisely, which it is very quick and effective.  That is why I was puzzled when you said it is harder to straighten in LR. 

 

Just in case, what I do in LR is different from you do.

1. Instead of using ' Crop and straighten' - (this might be what you do), I go to 'Transform' and use 'Auto'.  9 out of 10 time, it does a very good job.  If it need a fine tune, I use the sliders underneath.
2. With regard to 'crop white space', if I want to maintain the original dimensions, I use 'scale' (in Transform) to increase the size (interpolate) slightly (usually upto 102~103% or until white bits disappear).

 

If this is what you do already, you can ignore it.

 

Sung

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by SFL
spelling correction & word in blue

[spacecadet]

11 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Mark, I’ve never understood what “constrain crop” meant, so I’ve never touched it. If I don’t understand something, I avoid it like the plague in case I might mess something up.

Lol, it comes from the time I got my first computer, self-teaching, and got myself in some horrible messes I didn’t know how to back out of. I finally wrote down every single step I did so I had a roadmap to reverse my actions.

What does constrain crop mean?

Betty

It automatically gets rid of the white border from a manual perspective correction (LR calls it "transform") in the "lens correction" panel. I have it on by default. Sometimes you need to crop by hand if things are really tight, but I rarely need to turn it off.

Edited March 17, 2020 by spacecadet

[SFL]

15 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Mark, I’ve never understood what “constrain crop” meant, so I’ve never touched it. If I don’t understand something, I avoid it like the plague in case I might mess something up.

Lol, it comes from the time I got my first computer, self-teaching, and got myself in some horrible messes I didn’t know how to back out of. I finally wrote down every single step I did so I had a roadmap to reverse my actions.

What does constrain crop mean?

Betty

 

@Betty LaRue

 

Costrain crop means that you maintain the original photo's ratio (usually 3:2).  If you click on the pad lock icon, the pad lock looks open.  This means you are free from the original ratio when cropping.

 

17 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Mark, I’ve never understood what “constrain crop” meant, so I’ve never touched it. If I don’t understand something, I avoid it like the plague in case I might mess something up.

Lol, it comes from the time I got my first computer, self-teaching, and got myself in some horrible messes I didn’t know how to back out of. I finally wrote down every single step I did so I had a roadmap to reverse my actions.

What does constrain crop mean?

Betty

 

I don't think you need to do that.  LR also has 'History' section where all the edits are listed.  The history will remain intact until you choose to 'close All'.

 Unlike history in PS, when you can shut down LR and you open LR next day, the history will still be there.....

 

Sung 

[MDM]

13 minutes ago, SFL said:

 

@Betty LaRue

 

Hope I didn't misunderstood your question/frustration.  When I do interior photos, which is fairly often, I always use a tripod with Nikon D800's built in digital spirit level.  However when I edit, I often use LR in order to correct verticals precisely, which it is very quick and effective.  That is why I was puzzled when you said it is harder to straighten in LR. 

 

Just in case, what I do in LR is different from you do.

1. Instead of using ' Crop and straighten' - (this might be what you do), I go to 'Transform' and use 'Auto'.  9 out of 10 time, it does a very good job.  If it need a fine tune, I use the sliders underneath.
2. With regard to 'crop white space', if I want to maintain the original final dimensions, I use scale to increase (interpolate) by slightly (usually 102~103).

If this is what you do already, you can ignore it.

 

Sung

 

 

 

 

+1

 

Yes for sure. This is one of the few auto functions that really works very well in any software I find. I am not sure without a detailed check but I think it is only available in LRCC. 

 

[MDM]

1 minute ago, SFL said:

@Betty LaRue

 

Costrain crop means that you maintain the original photo's ratio (usually 3:2).  If you click on the pad lock icon, the pad lock looks open.  This means you are free from the original ratio when cropping.

 

 

I don't think you need to do that.  LR also has 'History' section where all the edits are listed.  The history will remain intact until you choose to 'close All'.

 Unlike history in PS, when you can shut down LR and you open LR next day, the history will still be there.....

 

Sung 

 

Actually I have to disagree with that first bit Sung. Constrain crop means the crop stays within the image area. It is the same as Constrain to image in the crop panel.

 

The second bit - yes absolutely. I always save the detailed history in the metadata when working in Photoshop. You can't go back but you can figure out what you did.