I’ve been rolling this idea around in my head for a while now, and I thought it might be time to try it on for size. The idea is this: start blogging here on my photography website. Great idea, right? I suspect about three people will read these, and one of them will be my mom. But what have I got to lose? Hi mom!! Hello two other readers, I’m so glad you’re here! If you’re not here because you’re my mom, welcome to an actual super quick photography tip!
Welcome to OK Kat’s el numero uno blog post! What’s this blog gonna be about anyway? I thought I might start out with some super easy tips for how to improve your own photography. Yes, even on your cell phone! I had the chance earlier today to test this notion out on a friend and they were responsive to the little tip, so I’m sharing it with all of you, too.
It’s also possible that I’ll sprinkle in some posts about upgrades and improvements I make to my equipment or gear. And maybe even some behind the scenes shots when I can get those! Or what about YOUR session? It’s possible that I may blog in the future about client sessions, but we’ll get to that eventually.
Enough with the babbling nonsense, I mentioned a photography tip, didn’t I? Let’s get to it! My number one super quick tip for photography: Try to make the horizon line level.
See there? Super quick, super easy, don’t even have to think about it much. And with our cell phones? A snap to fix, even if you didn’t get it level when you shot it! Let me show you a quick comparison. I borrowed this picture from my friend Jay, the very friend I mentioned earlier being responsive to this very same tip. He was also kind enough to let me borrow the picture to share with you here. Thanks Jay!
Nothing fancy here right? He was showing me how high the water was where normally there is beach. And we have a tendency to automatically correct these slanty horizons in our brains, right? You might not even have noticed it if it wasn’t pointed out to you.
But, a quick edit on my phone (iPhone 7, for those to whom it might matter):
If I open the image for editing, there just below the picture is a wheel with degree marks on it. No idea how this looks on an Android phone, I kind of assume they have similar features. But I can rotate the picture by mere degrees! My phone even tried to make a suggestion for me based on what it thought I was after. In this case, it was wrong, because it leveled the image based on the fence board there in the lower section. Here’s my finished product:
Just this one quick little fix and Jay’s snapshot at high tide looks better! We can still see the rocks there at the bottom, so we know there’s no sand in sight. No beach. =( His message is not lost in the edit.
Will your friends and family notice if you start watching your horizon lines? Probably not! But YOU will. And you’ll watch for horizon lines now in pictures all over the internet. This is stuff you can’t UNSEE once you know about it! Maybe I should be apologizing because now you really will see them everywhere.
But this is a good thing if you’re comparing photographers! Now, as well as knowing something to do to improve your own photography, you also know something to look for when considering a photographer. Yes, I’ve seen a LOT of professional photographers that don’t level their horizon lines! Is it the end of the world? Nope. Can an image still be attractive even with a slanty horizon? Sure! There may even be times you want to break this rule for artistic purposes! But you gotta know the rules to break them effectively, right?
There you have it folks. First blog post. First tip. I’ve got loads of these rattling around in my brain, so keep an eye out here in the future. We’ll talk more!!
Got tips of your own to share? Put them in the comments here or on the FaceBook page!