There’s one thing in photography that is more important than all others. It can be broken from time to time, but only when it enhances the photo in some way.
That rule? horizons are horizontal.
To a similar extent, verticals (buildings, poles, etc) are also vertical.
The horizon in nature is always horizontal – so it really irks me when people cannot get simple things like this right.
Yes, I know that lens distortion can mean you get ‘lean-in’ of verticals from the edges of the frame (but if you have photoshop you can correct this) and wide angle lenses often exhibit barrel distortion which means you might get a curved horizon – (again this is easily corrected in photoshop) – I don’t care about that so much – its an obviously wonky horizon where there is no good reason for it that annoys me, no matter how good the rest of the photograph.
I often see shots from wedding photographers with a wonky horizon (usually bisecting the brides head) at a jaunty angle – aaargh!! Please don’t unless it really adds something to the shot.
Very simple rules of composition and post processing and these things can be avoided. The human brain is expert at picking up even 1degree wonks from horizontal or vertical – its how we stay on our feet! So please if you think your shot is a little off, just check in Picasa, iPhoto, Photoshop, Lightroom or whatever you use to process your photos, just to see if the horizon is dead straight!!
aaaand relax :)
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