Monday, March 25, 2024

How to Keep Vertical Lines Vertical in Photographs: Number Two: Back Off

 

Rock City Barn RCB-TN-9. Highway 58, just south of Kingston, Tennessee.

Often the best way to keep vertical lines vertical in a photograph is simply to back off and find something interesting to fill the foreground while keeping the camera level and the lines of the subject vertical. We could use a zoom lens to accomplish the same effect. This is probably the technique I use most frequently. But it only works if there's something interesting in the foreground; something that tells us more about the main subject. Dead space with nothing of interest is only dead space. 

Here's another example:

Lee and Gordon Mill on Chickamauga Creek, Chickamauga, Georgia.

In this photograph, the turbulent water and the edge of a gravel bar serve to tell us something about the mill's location, while enabling me to keep the camera level and the lines of the old mill vertical.

About the photos: The barn was photographed with a Canon EOS A2 with the EF 24-85mm lens on Fujichrome 100 film. For the mill, I used an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with a Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm lens. If you read the information I supply with most blog posts, you'll note that I use zoom lenses most of the time.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   travel     photo techniques     Rock City Barns     old mills     film photography     Fujichrome film     Canon EOS A2 camera     Canon EF 24-85mm lens     Olympus E-M5 digital camera     Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm lens

4 comments:

  1. Dave, thank you for the tips, I will try them out.
    My 3X great grandfather and his brother were at Lee and Gordon Mill, with the 86th Indiana on September 19, 1863 during the Battle of Chickamauga.

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  2. That's really interesting history. Did he keep a diary? Must have.

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  3. Dave, if he did I have never seen it.
    My Great Grandmother told me she saw his uniform when she was young. His other brother died in hospital March 1863, and is buried in Stones River battlefield cemetery. Those two survived and lived until 1915.
    There is a book available on IU website for free written about the 86th Indiana and associated units. Its a good read.

    https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/inauthors/VAB8210

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  4. Sounds interesting! My youngest granddaughter, who grew up in Knoxville, is a freshman at IU this year.

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