Post Your Best Landscapes

[mrsfotografie]

http://michaelhodgesfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/big-country.jpg

Glacier National Park.

Beautiful image but your horizon is off. It needs rotating about 1 degree anti clockwise.

Are you sure? This is an issue I run into with some landscape shots as well, the shape of the landscape (in this case it's the strong diagonal line and dark mass of the mountains) may fool the eye into thinking the image is tilted although the camera really is level. The far bank seen on the right is not a real horizon so who says it needs to be level? I usually deal with this kind of situation by tilting the image just so it's visually pleasing but I tend not to correct fully so some of the tension remains.

Edit: perhaps a good trick in this type of image is to make sure the summits of the mountains line up vertically with their reflections.

 

[Sporgon]

http://michaelhodgesfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/big-country.jpg

Glacier National Park.

Beautiful image but your horizon is off. It needs rotating about 1 degree anti clockwise.

Are you sure?

Yes, unless it was taken at the edge of the world just before everything begins to drop off

Maybe not as much as 1 degree, more like 0.6. Difficult to be exact on such a low res sample.

I only mention it because it is such a beautiful image. I mean who cares if the horizon is off on a crap photo ? ;D

I've attached a 200% crop of the image with a grid over it.

 

[MichaelHodges]

Thanks for the heads up, Sporgon. This always seems to happen in this area of Glacier. If I adjust the lake/water horizon, the mountains don't look straight, so I leave it like this.

I'm going to go back into Lightroom and mess around. Thanks again.

 

[Northstar]

http://michaelhodgesfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/big-country.jpg

Glacier National Park.

Beautiful image but your horizon is off. It needs rotating about 1 degree anti clockwise.

Are you sure?

Yes, unless it was taken at the edge of the world just before everything begins to drop off

Maybe not as much as 1 degree, more like 0.6. Difficult to be exact on such a low res sample.

I only mention it because it is such a beautiful image. I mean who cares if the horizon is off on a crap photo ? ;D

I've attached a 200% crop of the image with a grid over it.

Beautiful photo indeed! And I learned a little from your discussion with mrsfoto.

1 degree is what I used for this edit.

Nice shot Michael.

 

[Sporgon]

Here's a shot taken on the River Stour just up stream from where the English artist Constable painted many of his most famous paintings.

A four vertical frame panoramic taken on 6D, + 24-70 f4L @ 50 mil and a touch of fill flash on the tree and closest swan. Taken just as the sun went down and a mist was beginning to form over the river and adjacent meadows. Twenty minutes later the whole area was enveloped in fog.

ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f11

The horizon was well off but I think I've got it straight now.

 

[Northstar]

Here's a shot taken on the River Stour just up stream from where the English artist Constable painted many of his most famous paintings.

A four vertical frame panoramic taken on 6D, + 24-70 f4L @ 50 mil and a touch of fill flash on the tree and closest swan. Taken just as the sun went down and a mist was beginning to form over the river and adjacent meadows. Twenty minutes later the whole area was enveloped in fog.

ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f11

The horizon was well off but I think I've got it straight now.

Nicely done Sporgon...sometimes the horizon can be tricky can't it?

 

[privatebydesign]

The foolproof way to get true horizons when you have a decent reflection is to pull a guide over the image and use that to level.

Particularly in hilly and mountainous regions what we think is level often is not and shorelines are not necessarily straight. But you can't fool a reflection.

Here is a screenshot of the glacier image. As you can see I pulled a guide over the peak and rotated it until the actual peak and its reflection lined up, it took a 2º anti clockwise rotation.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Thanks for the heads up, Sporgon. This always seems to happen in this area of Glacier. If I adjust the lake/water horizon, the mountains don't look straight, so I leave it like this.

I'm going to go back into Lightroom and mess around. Thanks again.

Are you also correcting for lens distortion (barre in this case)? If there is some distortion, you may correct for one side of the photo, and then the rest tilts.

I like these discussions, I learn a lot from them as well.

 

[mrsfotografie]

The foolproof way to get true horizons when you have a decent reflection is to pull a guide over the image and use that to level.

Particularly in hilly and mountainous regions what we think is level often is not and shorelines are not necessarily straight. But you can't fool a reflection.

Here is a screenshot of the glacier image. As you can see I pulled a guide over the peak and rotated it until the actual peak and its reflection lined up, it took a 2º anti clockwise rotation.

Thanks for illustrating what I mentioned earlier

 

[privatebydesign]

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words

I hadn't noticed your postscript but the message is true, you can't fool a reflection, unless you are a vampire!

 

[mrsfotografie]

Here's a shot taken on the River Stour just up stream from where the English artist Constable painted many of his most famous paintings.

A four vertical frame panoramic taken on 6D, + 24-70 f4L @ 50 mil and a touch of fill flash on the tree and closest swan. Taken just as the sun went down and a mist was beginning to form over the river and adjacent meadows. Twenty minutes later the whole area was enveloped in fog.

ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f11

The horizon was well off but I think I've got it straight now.

Beautiful shot! But according to the reflection method, you're off by 0.8 degrees (you need to tilt it anticlockwise by 0.8 degrees). Grid view before correction, and the corrected image below:

 

[Sporgon]

Nicely done Sporgon...sometimes the horizon can be tricky can't it?

Thanks Northstar. Yes it can, in fact I have an alarming inability to hold the camera level. I think it's probably because I tend to look through the camera with my head tilted to one side. I normally have to rotate my images anti clockwise, and it's surprising just how much image area you loose if you have to rotate even 1 degree.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Nicely done Sporgon...sometimes the horizon can be tricky can't it?

Thanks Northstar. Yes it can, in fact I have an alarming inability to hold the camera level. I think it's probably because I tend to look through the camera with my head tilted to one side. I normally have to rotate my images anti clockwise, and it's surprising just how much image area you loose if you have to rotate even 1 degree.

I found having a grid in the viewfinder helps, but then you may still be approximating wrongly. My 7D and 5D3 have the grid enabled, My 5D2 has a precision matte focusing screen, which comes without a grid unfortunately. For that camera I try to use the AF points as a level, but still I can get extremely tilted pictures too at times. 1 degree is in fact quite a lot already and yes you loose a lot of image real estate.

 

[Sporgon]

Here's a shot taken on the River Stour just up stream from where the English artist Constable painted many of his most famous paintings.

A four vertical frame panoramic taken on 6D, + 24-70 f4L @ 50 mil and a touch of fill flash on the tree and closest swan. Taken just as the sun went down and a mist was beginning to form over the river and adjacent meadows. Twenty minutes later the whole area was enveloped in fog.

ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f11

The horizon was well off but I think I've got it straight now.

Beautiful shot! But according to the reflection method, you're off by 0.8 degrees (you need to tilt it anticlockwise by 0.8 degrees). Grid view before correction, and the corrected image below:

Thanks MRS, yes you're right. The meadows on the left hand side do fall away from the river in reality which can make it look off when it is in fact correct. I'll change the original.

 

[mrsfotografie]

Here's a shot taken on the River Stour just up stream from where the English artist Constable painted many of his most famous paintings.

A four vertical frame panoramic taken on 6D, + 24-70 f4L @ 50 mil and a touch of fill flash on the tree and closest swan. Taken just as the sun went down and a mist was beginning to form over the river and adjacent meadows. Twenty minutes later the whole area was enveloped in fog.

ISO 1600, 1/80 sec, f11

The horizon was well off but I think I've got it straight now.

Beautiful shot! But according to the reflection method, you're off by 0.8 degrees (you need to tilt it anticlockwise by 0.8 degrees). Grid view before correction, and the corrected image below:

Thanks MRS, yes you're right. The meadows on the left hand side do fall away from the river in reality which can make it look off when it is in fact correct. I'll change the original.

Glad to be of help. I need to look into fill-flash more often, as it's obvious what it can do...

 

[TexasBadger]

Moab Utah. Canon 5D. 5 stitched images with PS6.

 

[serendipidy]

Nicely done Sporgon...sometimes the horizon can be tricky can't it?

Thanks Northstar. Yes it can, in fact I have an alarming inability to hold the camera level. I think it's probably because I tend to look through the camera with my head tilted to one side. I normally have to rotate my images anti clockwise, and it's surprising just how much image area you loose if you have to rotate even 1 degree.

+1
I almost never have a level horizon. Usually always off about 1 degree (usually must rotate counterclockwise to correct). I have pondered this and some thoughts:
1) my head or eyes or brain is tilted
2) I rotate the camera slightly when I press the shutter
3) maybe the sensor is rotated slightly in relation to the viewfinder
4) you just can't consistently be perfect

 

[Sporgon]

+1
I almost never have a level horizon. Usually always off about 1 degree (usually must rotate counterclockwise to correct). I have pondered this and some thoughts:
1) my head or eyes or brain is tilted
2) I rotate the camera slightly when I press the shutter
3) maybe the sensor is rotated slightly in relation to the viewfinder
4) you just can't consistently be perfect

It cannot possibly be number 4. And it therefore cannot be 1 or 2 either.

This means the reason must be number 3. ;D

 

[serendipidy]

+1
I almost never have a level horizon. Usually always off about 1 degree (usually must rotate counterclockwise to correct). I have pondered this and some thoughts:
1) my head or eyes or brain is tilted
2) I rotate the camera slightly when I press the shutter
3) maybe the sensor is rotated slightly in relation to the viewfinder
4) you just can't consistently be perfect

It cannot possibly be number 4. And it therefore cannot be 1 or 2 either.

This means the reason must be number 3. ;D

What perfect logic. ;D

 

[Click]

Moab Utah. Canon 5D. 5 stitched images with PS6.

Beautiful shot TexasBadger. 8)