A tiny town, a pretty building, a lone pedestrian and a wet road. A photo moment.
Photography Tip: What do you do when the road is sloping and there is no horizon to act as a reference to level your picture? It can get more confusing as some very old buildings tend to appear distorted due to wear and tear, modifications or poor restoration.
When you encounter such a scene, find a centre vertical line to align. In this case, I used the door.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f5, 1/60 sec.
Sometimes, you may want to use a tilted angle for creative effect. If you choose to slant the horizon, make it fairly obvious or it may be mistaken for sloppy framing.
One day, a hundred years from now, if this picture hang on the wall of some art gallery, an arty-farty visitor will speculate:
“The photographer wanted to convey the contrasting perspectives of urban and rural, the clash between development and conservation. The two sets of twins represent abstract symmetry but the oblique angle is a subtext of the underlying conflict…”
Actually, the reason I used the Dutch Angle here was pedestrian. I wanted to keep both the skyscrapers and the banana tree in Kampung Baru within a a single frame 🙂 There was simply no space for me to move back for a more conventional framing.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f11, 1/320 sec.
When one is awed by a seaside sunset, it is easy to overlook a basic rule in photography. Keep the horizon level. A tilted horizon is especially noticeable in pictures of the ocean. Unless it is intentional, make it a habit to level properly whenever the horizon is visible.
Even without a levelling gauge or grid lines, you can level by getting the horizon line parallel to the top or bottom edge of the viewfinder (or LCD).
Although an image editing software can rotate your image to correct framing error, it is better to get it correct in-camera. Each time you level with software, you lose part of the picture due to cropping
Make a conscious effort and after a while it will become a subconscious effort each time you pick up the camera to compose a picture.
Photographed at Bagan Lalang beach.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f10, 1/320 sec.
