Lines Lines Lines, Get Your Lines Straight: Rapid Fire Critique

One of the most important aspects in my opinion to a photography is getting your lines and angles straight. You all have seen images that look like a person is falling down a hill or that somehow objects defy gravity. But what’s really going on is the lines and horizons are not straight.

I am aware that you can make these corrections and fixes sometimes after the fact in post but that starts to introduce other issues. When you straighten your lines in lightroom you are actually cropping some of the image. For some this is not a big deal but depending on the image and how much noise and grain you have you may be causing yourself some issues with the final images.

More than anything, when you look at an image where the angles or lines are off it really stands out to you. It gives you some kind of feeling that something is amiss in the image.

Here are some tips for getting your lines straight. Find the horizon line and visually make sure in the viewfinder that it is straight. Some cameras have built in levels but honestly I find that I am much better just eyeing it up. Make sure you don’t have a bag over your shoulder that is weighting you down on one side. This sometimes translates into having lines that are not straight. And finally just look at your images, learn from them, if you find that you have to straighten your lines all the time in post you might be doing something wrong.

Try to learn from the images you have always taken, there has to be something that is causing you not to see the lines properly when you are shooting. Use something in the image to help you figure out what a straight line might be.

Now lets talk about this critique. I think the photographer is on to something with the 10 images selected. My breakdown is that 3 of the 10 are solid keepers with 2 or 3 more being close and the rest miss for a few various reasons. But like I have said a million times, if you send me a set to critique and I see 3 or 4 keepers, you are on the right path.

Critiques are all about helping you mold your portfolio and bring out the best images. Please remember that critiques are just one persons opinion and you should take it any way you choose. Just because I say I don’t like not straight lines doesn’t mean that I am right. This is all in my opinion of course and I critique the work as if I were looking at my own images.

In the end it comes down to you, what do you like in your images, what do you want to showcase and what makes you happy with your images.