Lift your head up.
Look for the horizon. There is one there. Just look for it. Then straighten your shot up.
Before you take the photo make sure the image is straight. Or straighten it later in your photo app.
Choose a line.
Your viewers eye will relax when your horizon is level. And your subject is balanced.
Fourth son sent me this picture in an effort to encourage me to hurry up and visit. I said: just as soon as I have Him Indoors back Outdoors. Then Mama will be on the Move again. Hold your Horses. (As Dad used to say.)
It is such a seductive image due to that straight line and the small boy perfectly positioned in the first third (but we can talk about thirds another time).
Straighten up.
Our eyes keep our horizon level – no matter how we tilt our heads. They are the original gyroscope. And if we encounter images (or occasions) when things are on a slant, tipped sideways just enough to be annoying – our eyes try to fix it. Our eyes gnaw at the odd angle like a tongue on a tooth. If you see a painting tipped sideways on a wall – it doesn’t matter where: doctors office, friends lounge, hotel lobby; I bet you are straightening that painting whether it is on your wall or not.
I am exactly the same.
Which is why – in my images and in my life I am always seeking those serene straight lines. They are grounding lines holding all the bright bubbles of life. Frame with them. Choose a strong line and straighten it as a foundation for your image.
It is harder than it looks. But trust yourself.
🛵 Trust your eye. If it says something is wrong – it usually is.
I grew up by the sea – above.
Now I live on the plains.
Both incredible strong horizons.
There are a few really solid tips I will share for taking a good shot for your blog or any social media and especially for yourself. I will pop in every now and then with a new one.
This chicken shot has a major flaw too. Can you see what it is? (We will talk about cropping another time too).
Have a lovely day
Celi
PS A straight horizon is critical in TKG Take Ten too. See how annoying that is? Your afternoon edition of the kitchens garden is making me work hard! 😂🤭 (Have you signed up yet?)
The Kitchen's Garden 
20 responses to “Photo Tip : Check your Horizon”
Chicken shot. Since you asked and since we are now part of a tantalizing quiz show on photography, my answer to your chicken question would be that the comb shouldn’t be tangential to the edge of the frame, but either, good and free of it, or purposefully cropped. Cropping heads can be tricky. Wonderful sometimes, just irksome at others. Is that the right answer? Hmmmmm…
Yes!! The absolute right answer. I cropped him before adding the frame and then / ooops! Lost the air! My dad had a camera like this once – he called it the head chopper. What you saw through the viewfinder was not what you got laid into your film. It would routinely shave off the top of a head. Dad even put a little note on the camera to remind himself.
I love the picture of your grandchild on the beach. First, cause it’s just a gorgeous, warm, moody picture. But second because his reflected self seems ever so slightly different as his physical self…as if it’s a secret companion…
I will tell him. He will love that.
Great tips Celi! I remember years ago you posted tips on how you got some of your wonderful photos by lying down, changing the levels on shots, standing on things, leaning sideways, you name it. Of course the tips made me realize why my shots were always extremely boring… It’s because I never moved at all, just took 6 or 7 of the same shot thinking one might be better than another… maybe??? Ridiculous of course! But I realized this from you. So thank you for those tips back then and for these today! 🙂
Oh thank you for such a wonderful compliment- I am sure your shots are lovely. And yes! We will get into different levels again. I love how you remembered that!
Beautiful clouds in the old truck and barn picture!
I think most phones and digital cameras have a grid setting, but it may need to be turned on 😉 Android has recently introduced a moving yellow line to show when the camera is level.
Yes! The Grid. good point. I always have my grid on – or my life would be a sorry mess with this much horizon. And my latest IPhone has that yellow line too. I was thinking how I used to wade through PhotoShop to get shots so similar. So much easier now.
In the old days, only the most expensive SLR cameras had a grid but one had to buy a new screen and remove the old one. Larger format cameras (5X4 and 10X8 inches) did have a grid on the screen and we would often enhance it buy drawing on the glass with a chinagraph pencil.
The things we used to do – but what’s a chinagraph pencil?
It’s a coloured pencil which will draw on glass and clear plastic – it can be rubbed off when the marks are no longer necessary.
As usual all photos stir emotion but that one sent to you of the wee boy – well, that one takes the cake!
Your comment about the horizon lines of the sea and the prairies was interesting. A visitor from Nebraska spent some time at our family place in northern Wisconnsin. He thought it was a beautiful area but his main complaint was he couldn’t see anything because of all the trees! As they say, in Nebraska you can watch your dog run away for two weeks.
The place I’m at now has no visible horizon, trees everywhere and some buildings. can’t see the open sky either without driving out of town. I know where it is anyway. I would love to be where I could see the open sky from horizon to horizon and all around. I’ve never had that as most of the places I’ve lived have been hemmed in by trees and buildings.
The tops of buildings are your horizon! Hopefully they were not built crooked! I am even happier to share my open sky with you!
More trees than buildings and most withing about 500 feet so pretty closed in and lots of trees on the property. There’s an oak about six or seven feet from the two south facing windows with a branch the squirrels use to jump on the roof which Brat the cat watches closely and sometimes the one big squirrel comes to visit and they sit swishing tails and staring at each other.
I’m very fussy about my horizons … 😊
Aaah, the golden section, so satisfying to the eye. Poor chook, her comb chopped off…
Yes – poor chook!
Lovely pictures and great tips