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theantiquetiger
10-06-2011, 08:09 AM
When leveling tall buildings, which line should you use? For example, the shot below, because of the angle of the shot and the converging of the lines of the steeple, the left line is not level.

Should I use the line closest to the camera or set the building to where all the lines are as close to vertical as possible? Or forget the vertical lines all together and make sure the horizontal lines are level?

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f22/13621d1317830086-historic-st-gabriel-la-please-critique-church1small.jpg

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f22/13492d1316853892-louisiana-state-capitol-statecap5complete.jpg

Marko
10-06-2011, 10:18 AM
These look "pretty" straight to me. maybe shot one might slope 1/8 of a degree to the right and shot 2, 1/4 of a degree to the right.

There is no way to avoid this using a regular lens UNLESS the sensor/film plane is perfectly parallel to the subject plane.
This is why tilt/shift lenses cost a fortune, those lenses can correct converging lines while on the camera though unusual corrective lens movements.

I usually focus on the horizontal line and fix converging lines if they look overwonky.

Mad Aussie
10-06-2011, 06:41 PM
I pretty much do as Marko says but I get what you are asking when given several choices of lines to correct. Sometimes I go for an 'average' of them all, or sometimes I'm driven by other things around like lamp posts that might insist on a certain side of the building being my choice. I let my eye choose the right line. Often it is the closest line, but sometimes it's the most obvious line to the eye. In your church shot, that would be the left side of the steeple for me.

Iguanasan
10-07-2011, 08:13 AM
I think I pretty much agree with Marko and MA though I tend to be slightly different. I tend to go a bit more on feeling. My experience has been that generally one particular line seems crooked even when many of them are crooked it's one that stands out more than others. For me, with the church shot, it's the "centre" corner of the church tower. That is the one closest to me. If that one is straight then my eyes can live with the other ones being a little crooked as it just seems like normal distortion due to perspective.

I can see, without seeing the base of the building, that you were not lined up right in front of it. I think my eye wants to believe the centre of the building is straight so I would line up the windows in the middle the best I can. But what I'm generally trying to do is make it look like it's not leaning. Right now it looks like it leans to the right.