Problem with framing

I have the k100 D I am very happy with the camera overall but find if I am not very careful when framing uprights such as corner of buildings or posts then there is a tendency for them to come out leaning to one side in the image. Also you need to be careful when shooting the sea against the sky line as this also tends to look odd if care is not taken to get the line dead plumb. I know this question has been asked before on other forums but thought I would throw it into the pot and see if anyone here had this problem.

I am not sure what the answer is to getting true verticals and horizontals actually vertical and horizontal, but they are very easy to correct afterwards in post processing.

Shooting using a tripod would be one obvious answer.

What should be vertical or horizontal is very often a matter of debate on the forum.

A straightforward junction between the sea and the sky is one thing but once perspective comes into play, horizontals and verticals are much more difficult.

Two problems present themselves frequently.

1 If you shoot at an angle to the subject (such as pointing the camera up when shooting a building), the laws of perspective dictate that the vertical lines of the building will converge (they will not be parallel).

2 Some lenses, especially wide zooms, exhibit what is called barrel distortion. This is where the horizontal lines of the image appear to bow outwards the further they are from the centre. This tends to make a tube look like a barrel - hence the name.

In the former case, the solution is to shoot straight, which will give you a lot of foreground to crop out later.

In the latter case, place the horizon (or whatever it is) in the centre of the shot. Or, buy another, more expensive, lens.

Of course, you can also use software to make corrections, but "right first time" is a good motto.

G

Lots of photographers shoot pictures which are not straight and they even get into photo magazines.

It's a tricky one and needs a lot of care at the shooting stage. Sometimes an image will contain several contradictory straight edges and the tricjk here is to make the image look straight to the eye without necessarily every straight line being straight.

If it looks right, then it's right.