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Photography Tips for Beginners-Keep The Horizon Straight.

A wonky horizon rarely, if ever, looks right.

Petra Kidd
3 min readMay 14, 2024
Image by author @MyriadPhoto — altered to make the point!

It is a common photographic error that I see on a daily basis via social media.

Someone posts a picture but doesn’t level the horizon.

Perhaps they haven’t even noticed the horizon is wonky. Or maybe they think they are being arty.

A wonky horizon can have its place in some photographs’ art, but it generally does not look good. It screams: hasty snap.

If the horizon isn’t straight, it distracts from what might be a great photo in many other ways.

The photographs I see most often with the horizon off-kilter are those of the sea or beaches. These are probably the most glaringly obvious.

How to correct a wonky horizon.

The best time to correct a wonky horizon is when you are shooting the photograph. If you struggle to do it by eye alone, most cameras and more advanced smartphones have a leveler in the menu. This provides a broken line on the viewing screen when the horizon isn’t level. This will become a solid line when you level the horizon to be straight.

If you don’t spot the wonky horizon until after you have shot the photograph, you can either correct it in the photo…

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Petra Kidd
Petra Kidd

Written by Petra Kidd

Photographer and Writer. I write short stories. I shoot, I write, I publish. Find me by the River Wensum.

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