[Leica] Breaking the tilting habit?

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

Thanks for the tips Ted
Hardly ever used to have the problem before I needed glasses. When I was 
still using a Rollei 2000F I had a gridded screen too - a great help for 
really WA shots (just got hold of a screen like that for the 3003 I 
recently bought too).
I have one of those HAMA plexiglass blocks with two-way bubble levels, 
but as soon as you're close enough to look through the VF you can't see 
it any more - superb for tripod work though.
But at least since I started with the Canon 20D I can line horizons up 
against the AF sensor marks.

My real problem is when I'm forced to tilt the camera to get everything 
in the frame (i.e. can't get back far enough ) which results in the 
dreaded converging verticals or totally screwed up perspectives.

Now if my camera would tell me just how much tilt was in the shot and 
record the angle parameters to correct it without messing about with the 
seldom successful bit of Photoshop I particularly hate, then I would be 
one happy snapper :-)

You're dead right about remembering to do it, and I think my brain 
usually works as it should, but there are situations when it's more 
important to make sure you don't crash down an up-escalator while 
travelling backwards trying to get the following shot with both hands on 
the camera (shot at the wide end of a 12-24 zoom):

http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/104730-1/Reception+area.jpg

By the time it would have taken to line up the rear-floor "horizon" and 
the verticals on both sides, and to make it worse the ceiling DOES slope 
down to the left,  I would probably have been on the third floor ;-) 
which in itself is not such a bad idea - there's quite a good restaurant 
up there. :-)
Best from Hannover
Douglas
Maybe I should stick to "Red Arrows" shots - nobody notices (except me) 
even if you  display them upside down :-)

Ted Grant wrote:
> Gentlemen this is a very easy habit to break! I say this from vast
> experience of tilted horizons and wilting buildings. :-) Not to forget the
> haranguing of associate Sandy Carter whom some of you know. Particularly
> when we'd edited a shoot!  Jeeeeesh female editor's can be as vicious as a
> triple fanged viper when they make a point about horizon lines. Trust me I
> have been crushed to the floor feeling like an absolute visual idiot when
> she's finished. :-) 
>
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> Yep you have to work at it, a hard thing to do in the heat of photo battle.
> But as soon as you have your basic scene in viewfinder check the right-left
> inner edges of the view finder for vertical lines. window, side of building
> whatever is the most obvious. A quick check of opposite side making sure
> it's also perfect. You may flick eye back and forth a couple of times, then
> "CLICK!" It takes a tiny bit of fiddling at times but it makes a vast
> difference.
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> However you do have to use your brain and remember to do it!!!!!!! :-) This
> is extremely important with super wide's all the time.
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> An option. See if you can find a small clip into hot shoe level in a camera
> store or hardware shop. At least a small one to carry in bag forever and
> place it on hot shoe particularly when working off a tripod. It just needs
> to balance on hot shoe if on tripod.
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