Is this straight?

treegle

treegle

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Glenn
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Not a question about the quality of the photograph etc., just a basic, is this photo straight? I can't figure out whether the sea should be horizontal or whether the lines in the rock should be horizontal. My instinct says that geologically, surely the lines in the rock should be horizontal, but the sea level seems too tilted.


DSC_0120a by treegle on Talk Photography
 
Geologically the rock strata does not have to be horizontal as the rocks may have been tilted after they were laid down. However unless you were square on to the cliffs the sea will not be level in the photo as it is at an angle.
Imagine the cliff being a wall at an angle at the side of you, you would expect the bottom and the top of the wall to be converging as they go off into the distance.
 
-edited-

Same as Kev said above. I'm sure you have looked at a cliff or at a mountain before in your life, rocks can be all over the place due to tectonic plate movement and smaller geological fault.
 
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Sorry, I should have used 'almost horizontal'. I understand the convergence as it goes off into the distance, but when I look at this photo it just doesn't look right.
 
Sometimes rocks can be totally vertical and even in places some rock can be found upside down so much tectonic has folded them.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Looking straight on, and at sea level, the waterline would be horizontal; gravity as you say. But the perspective isn't straight on so I am coming to the conclusion that the shot isn't straight, but needs adjusting so none of the lines are horizontal, and with a small amount of convergence.

So somewhere between the original shot and Phil D's edit. Closer to Phil's, but the horizontal waterline still doesn't look quite right.
 
treegle said:
Thanks for the replies.

Looking straight on, and at sea level, the waterline would be horizontal; gravity as you say. But the perspective isn't straight on so I am coming to the conclusion that the shot isn't straight, but needs adjusting so none of the lines are horizontal, and with a small amount of convergence.

So somewhere between the original shot and Phil D's edit. Closer to Phil's, but the horizontal waterline still doesn't look quite right.
Click to expand...

Glenn. as I've shown above, the water isn't always the way to level an image. I spend a lot of time on rivers (fishing). I have loads of images where the water looks to be running off. What I did with your image was level it to what looked right to me, but I certainly can see where your coming from if the water line wasn't 'level' to the eye when you took the image.

I suppose with an image like yours above, where there's not a lot else to go on, level it to what looks right to you :)
 
treegle said:
Thanks for the replies.

Looking straight on, and at sea level, the waterline would be horizontal; gravity as you say. But the perspective isn't straight on so I am coming to the conclusion that the shot isn't straight, but needs adjusting so none of the lines are horizontal, and with a small amount of convergence.

So somewhere between the original shot and Phil D's edit. Closer to Phil's, but the horizontal waterline still doesn't look quite right.
Click to expand...

Yes sometimes it's hard/impossible to tell. In some shot it's easier to look for some real vertical or reflection which are always align vertically. But in your tight crop there is no much element to help so you have to go has it feels right.
 
Water rules I tend to use:
Sea = try to level it...the sea is flat to the horizon....same with lakes.
Rivers or flowing water = level for the focus or surrounding rocks dependent on what filling the frame and what you are trying to convey.

The image posted I'd have levelled the sea as it looks to be sea. Which never runs down a rock either away or towards the shore...it's flat in nature (bar the waves of course!)
 
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