stuctures and buildings

[☠northy]

I am wondering what the trick is to shooting buildings / architecture / structures... anytime i take a picture of a building it ends up canted... i assume because i am tilting the camera to look up at it... i assume if i were far enough back or high enough up, this wouldn't be a problem, but is that the only way to achieve the straight lines? i think sometimes it's possible to use the tilt to one's advantage - altho' i've never been successful with this... anyway, if you could let me in on the secret i would appreciate it greatly :) tx!!!n

[Paula x2 Brumbe]

Most will tilt if you are close to the building and it is more pronounced the more you look up. If you get a bit farther out and use a wide angle you may lessen your distortion. For me I pick one line that will be straight prior to taking the photo and try my hardest to make that straight. I have plenty of building shots and so few are really straight

This one I wanted a centered shot


standing too close, but picked the windows on the back of the building


City Hall Centered

[☮Lee Gordon☮]

this is a distortion called Keystoning, to get rid of this you need editing software with some form of perspective correction feature, these usually work by expanding the top of the photoin direct relation to the amount of perspective distortion, here is a photoshop tutorial to show you what I mean. http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/fixing-the-keystone-effect-using-photoshop

[Paula x2 Brumbe]

@asrai I tried that software and realized I liked the tilt and canyon feel a bit more if I just maxed it in composition from the start.

[☠northy]

tx for the responses!

Lee - i've tried using the keystone fix in PSE, but it inevitably ends up throwing something else off balance! maybe i'm doing it wrong, so i will definitely go thru the tutorial to see if i can improve my technique...

Paula - your shots are lovely... i take it you're figuring out how to use the tilt effect to best advantage when composing the shot... i think i need to try that approach as well...

@asrai @brumbe

[Stacy ♥ DOF]

when you fix the canting in PS you will probably have to crop a bit. Sometimes the converging vertical lines are desirable, especially when the buildings are very tall and you're looking for a looming feeling.