Your pet peeve(s) when viewing pics?

[Levina de Ruijter]

One of the things that I find off putting in pics is a tilted horizon. A landscape with a tilted horizon, a lake with the water about to flow away, a bird about to slide down to the edge of the frame. It can really ruin a beautiful or great photograph for me.

That got me wondering who else always sees those tilted horizons.

And also: what other pet peeves are there when viewing (your own or other people's) images?

 

[Ltdave]

mostly not knowing WHERE someplace is or WHAT something might be.




as far as tilted horizons are concerned, YEARS (decades) ago (1985) i was working for the local newspaper. they were owned by Gannett (the people who own and publish USAToday) but i only ever covered local stuff.

a teacher and her husband in town, always hosted a jazz show on their property in July or August, on the beach of Lake Huron (one of the great lakes) and these musicians came from across the country and Canada. im sure there were some from Europe too at times.

i got on the stage near the back of the 'tent' and took one of my 'trademark' lol, Crowd shots from the band's point of view. i dont know if it was because i was holding my (film) camera on an angle, or if i wasnt paying attention when i was printing it for the paper but i had the horizon line, of Lake Huron running about 12-14o off level.

they ran the picture as printed (i had one assignement where they sent another photographer out to re-shoot it because they didnt like what i had submitted, OOPS!) and it was a full width spread. the photo editor (my BOSS) had taken the page of paper it was on, wrote in big red letters "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO DRAIN THE LAKE?" across it and taped it to the outside of the photo offices.... i was so embarassed.

NOW i almost always hit "Auto" on the straightening button in Crop tool on LrC, and to this day, i STILL shoot stuff with a little tilt. i dont know why....

however, if you DO put a big tilt to a shot, its known in the art world as a Dutch Angle (or Dutch tilt, canted angle, vortex plane, or oblique angle)....

 

[Jack Dawe]

however, if you DO put a big tilt to a shot, its known in the art world as a Dutch Angle (or Dutch tilt, canted angle, vortex plane, or oblique angle)....

That's one of my pet peeves. It can be effective in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing and then it's fine, but mostly it just looks like whoever took the photo was trying to be clever and failed.

Agree about tilted horizons - and anything else that ought to be horizontal. Verticals need watching as well.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

mostly not knowing WHERE someplace is or WHAT something might be.

Yep! People posting pics of churches, bridges, castles and not a word as to where it is. Roy M. comes to mind...

as far as tilted horizons are concerned, YEARS (decades) ago (1985) i was working for the local newspaper. they were owned by Gannett (the people who own and publish USAToday) but i only ever covered local stuff.

a teacher and her husband in town, always hosted a jazz show on their property in July or August, on the beach of Lake Huron (one of the great lakes) and these musicians came from across the country and Canada. im sure there were some from Europe too at times.

i got on the stage near the back of the 'tent' and took one of my 'trademark' lol, Crowd shots from the band's point of view. i dont know if it was because i was holding my (film) camera on an angle, or if i wasnt paying attention when i was printing it for the paper but i had the horizon line, of Lake Huron running about 12-14o off level.

they ran the picture as printed (i had one assignement where they sent another photographer out to re-shoot it because they didnt like what i had submitted, OOPS!) and it was a full width spread. the photo editor (my BOSS) had taken the page of paper it was on, wrote in big red letters "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO DRAIN THE LAKE?" across it and taped it to the outside of the photo offices.... i was so embarassed.

NOW i almost always hit "Auto" on the straightening button in Crop tool on LrC, and to this day, i STILL shoot stuff with a little tilt. i dont know why....

however, if you DO put a big tilt to a shot, its known in the art world as a Dutch Angle (or Dutch tilt, canted angle, vortex plane, or oblique angle)....

Great story. The sign that your boss taped to the wall made me laugh. I can so imagine how embarrassing that must have been. But you never forgot that lesson, that's for sure!

As to that Dutch Angle, yeah, it's usually used by people who try to be "creative"...

 

[David1701]

One of the things that I find off putting in pics is a tilted horizon. A landscape with a tilted horizon, a lake with the water about to flow away, a bird about to slide down to the edge of the frame. It can really ruin a beautiful or great photograph for me.

That got me wondering who else always sees those tilted horizons.

And also: what other pet peeves are there when viewing (your own or other people's) images?

Ah, but the world is round!

 

[Ltdave]

because i get bored with the regular images of the games.

i dont know how the shooters for the higher level leagues, continue to do this. after 25+ games (ive gone on the road and i like that because its different venues and uniforms) i run out of ideas it seems (well to me anyway)

here are a couple Dutch Angle shots, just because were talking about them

 

[Jack Dawe]

because i get bored with the regular images of the games.

i dont know how the shooters for the higher level leagues, continue to do this. after 25+ games (ive gone on the road and i like that because its different venues and uniforms) i run out of ideas it seems (well to me anyway)

here are a couple Dutch Angle shots, just because were talking about them

View attachment 19840View attachment 19841

I think the reason these work is because the main subjects still look relatively upright, despite the angle. The second might work even better if the 'Prowlers' logo was horizontal.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

because i get bored with the regular images of the games.

i dont know how the shooters for the higher level leagues, continue to do this. after 25+ games (ive gone on the road and i like that because its different venues and uniforms) i run out of ideas it seems (well to me anyway)

here are a couple Dutch Angle shots, just because were talking about them

View attachment 19840View attachment 19841

Yes, but this is different, isn't it? I have no problem with these tilted grounds (after being told a horizon is different from a skyline I am afraid to say "horizon" now ). I mean the focus (pardon the pun) is on the players, the action. The background is pretty much irrelevant. And those tilted floors may actually contribute to the feeling of action in the shots.

And I think Jason (Jack Dawe) also made a good point: that the players are pretty much upright.

These shots are great!

 

[greatgrandma]

I have trouble with keeping the camera straight when I am on our boat because I am usually sticking my camera out under the life lines so as not to have them in the photo. It does drive me crazy and I don't know of an Auto straightening button so I was really happy when I found Picasa - a free editing program which would straighten my horizon for me. Even when I'm not on a boat I tend to stand or sit crooked and so I always straighten my photos when I edit them. Here's one before editing. Of Point No Point Lighthouse. It is hard to see that this is not really level because all the intersecting lines distract you

The other thing that bothers me a lot is the color in the photo. I don't like color that is off. Sometimes when I have a slide that has gotten mold or something that has made splotches of lavender color that I can't get rid of, I will default to black and white

My dad at my sister's wedding

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

The other thing that bothers me a lot is the color in the photo. I don't like color that is off.

I struggle with colour. I'm not good with it, but I do see when it's off. And especially greens are hard to correct. At least for me. When a bird is in the field, standing in the grass and the light isn't good then those greens usually give me a really hard time. Green is a difficult colour, when it's right, it's lovely, when it's off, it's just really bad.