How to level a camera when you shoot side way?

K

Kenneth Lau

Active member
Damn, I cannot believe I am posting this. Yes, I am having trouble balancing my camera lately while operating.

Just like everyone, I use my tripod bubble to balance it most of the time. When I shoot straight on shot, I like to use any horizontal line in the frame to confirm if the camera is level or not. However, I am having trouble levelling it when I do hand held and shoot at an angle to the character. The DP kept telling me is slightly not levelled and I couldn't tell it at all in the frame. When you shoot at an angle ( Hand held ), are there any tricks and tips on levelling the camera?
 
Depending on the camera, put up the grid or horizontal centre line in the viewfinder.

I use the grid and it helps with thirds too. Some cameras have different colors for the grid, but I found white covers all degrees of exposure.
I always keep it on and learnt to 'look through it' for framing.

Cheers.
 
Kenneth Lau said:
Damn, I cannot believe I am posting this. Yes, I am having trouble balancing my camera lately while operating.

Just like everyone, I use my tripod bubble to balance it most of the time. When I shoot straight on shot, I like to use any horizontal line in the frame to confirm if the camera is level or not. However, I am having trouble levelling it when I do hand held and shoot at an angle to the character. The DP kept telling me is slightly not levelled and I couldn't tell it at all in the frame. When you shoot at an angle ( Hand held ), are there any tricks and tips on levelling the camera?
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Handheld is always difficult, and sometimes shooting a slight bit wider with the idea that one will correct in 'post'... is the better 'cheap' choice.

That said, there are several things that often confuse the apparent horizon lines in a shot... one is the parallel planes (or lack of parallelness...) between a 'building' and the 'camera sensor'. You may have your camera correctly leveled for your position, but if you are shooting a building at a slightly off from 90 deg. to the horizontal lines in the building, these 'horizontal lines' give the impression that the shot was 'canted' in some way.

As you tilt up... again due to lack of parallelness between sensor and building surface... the vertical lines converge.

Worse still is the focal length will yield their effect of bowing, and it may be asymmetrical depending on where the 'lens center' is placed relative to the parallel lines.

All this adds up to funny distortions in the image, which depending on the lens, distance of object, etc... add up to a certain sort of 'whackness'.

As for using the 'tripod' spirit levels... even with a bubble level on the tripod, 2 levels for the head... adjusting the film plane to be 'parallel' with the building surface... (somehow someway...), I'd still get slight angles, because the camera mount or film plane relative to the camera mount was 'slightly off'... This is why 'quality' equipment costs 1000's of dollars, because of the precision machining involved to get everything aligned...

On most DSLR's the on/in camera displays may not be good enough. If you have the option of an external monitor of about 12"/15" or so, you can take a clear plastic ruler, and measure significant horizontal lines, from one side of the frame to the other, and adjust any 'run out' as required...
 
Kenneth Lau said:
Damn, I cannot believe I am posting this. Yes, I am having trouble balancing my camera lately while operating.

Just like everyone, I use my tripod bubble to balance it most of the time. When I shoot straight on shot, I like to use any horizontal line in the frame to confirm if the camera is level or not. However, I am having trouble levelling it when I do hand held and shoot at an angle to the character. The DP kept telling me is slightly not levelled and I couldn't tell it at all in the frame. When you shoot at an angle ( Hand held ), are there any tricks and tips on levelling the camera?
Click to expand...

Only way I can think is that you neeed to practice and develop your eye to evaluate what you are seeing in the viewfinder.

If the D.P can see it...you should be able to as well.

BTW - levelling a camera technically by use of lines and level devices etc ...does not alway make the shot feel level and dutching it a little might feel better as well as look more interesting.

A lot can be hidden in a "dutch" if done well. D

All depends a little if there is geography such as a water horizon that needs to be level because of expectation that it should only be level.
 
Is funny that sometimes when the bubble say is levelled but it doesn't LOOK levelled. I have to tilt it a little bit to make it look right. DO you guys do that as well? I sometimes even think is the bubble accurate.... I read that distortion of the lens will make it feel like not levelled as well.
 
Out of curiousity are you using a bowl head with bubble level to level off your camera, or actually adjusting the tripod legs? lol
 
Kenneth Lau said:
Is funny that sometimes when the bubble say is levelled but it doesn't LOOK levelled. I have to tilt it a little bit to make it look right. DO you guys do that as well? I sometimes even think is the bubble accurate.... I read that distortion of the lens will make it feel like not levelled as well.
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Yes. That's the point with give it a little 'dutch' if the shot works that way... once the horizon line is angled, the human mind will take over and adjust... it is when the horizon, or 'horizontal lines' in the image or just a 'tad' off, for 'no reason'... then it becomes a problem...

I find this happens with 'scenics' say the ocean, and perhaps a 'bay' near the open ocean... and the shot can contain just the bay, or a combination of bay and open ocean. Further the shore line of the bay is curved, and for the shot that just has the bay, with no real distant horizon reference, the shot 'feels' cocked to one side. If there is a bit of the horizon, and that is 'level' then the way the bay shape 'reads' correctly... In the case of no distant horizon reference in the shot, one can 'unlevel' the camera to have the lines in the frame parallel to the frame border... since there's no reference... there's usually no viewer problem...

Some times this causes some very bizarre results... if one is on a highly angled street, say one of the many in San Francisco, and one angles the camera to have the seam where the sidewalk and the houses meet, parallel to the camera frame... the houses will appear 'tilted'...

Such as this example I found with a few deft keystrokes...

crw_4738-copy.jpg
 
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While I'm on the subject... things that can lead to visual 'wyrdness'... beyond simple 'leveling' of the camera.

Using flat surfaces with parallel lines relative to the image frame.

1) filmplane/sensor parallel, or not, relative to the surface. If there's a lack of parallelism, the lines will appear to be at an 'angle' to the frames, and no amount of 'leveling' the camera will bring all the lines in the shot parallel the frame.
2) Lens 'barrel' or 'pin cushion' effects. wideangle/fisheye most obvious, and used because of the effect. Lenses which have rectilinear correction mitigate this effect.
3) In moving pictures( or stitched panoramas...), panning has the issue of the lens nodal point. If the camera is not rotated about the lens nodal point, a parallax effect occurs. (Along with the axis of rotation for the pan needs to be perpendicular to the apparent local 'horizon'...). All DSLR's and most other cameras, have their 'mounting' screw hole way far away from any lens in the first place, therefore all such cameras will necessarily have this problem, unless a special mounting plate is used, or at least one that has the ability to set the camera body back and have the nodal point of the lens placed above the center of rotation.

Most of these things are noticeable in the usual 'urban setting' most people live in. Rural areas, absent roads, telephone poles, etc. often can be shot with less worry about some of these sorts of distortions or effects. Unless one is making forensic analysis of some scene...
 
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I usually try to watch vertical lines in the frame. If you use the vertical line of a doorway, piece of furniture, window, etc. as a visual reference you can typically find your way to level pretty consistently. The other important thing is to make sure that when you put the camera on your shoulder it naturally sits without tilting to either side. If you are always making minor physical adjustments when watching the horizon then you probably need to move the shoulder pad to a position with less of a natural tilt. Depending on your posture when operating, you might need to compensate for a featured side or preferred way of distributing your weight.

And as with everything else, practice is the key.
 
The O.P said in o.p

However, I am having trouble levelling it when I do hand held and shoot at an angle to the character.
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I dont know how one uses a bubble or other leveling device when hand holding.
 
TheDingo said:
If you can see it, you can confirm that you are level. ( not necessarily an easy thing to do )
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I think this is where stabilizers come in... I've made an impromptu stabilizer out of a piece of bent rebar, neckerchief, bungee cord, two bottles of water and a monopod... gravity works... but with fancy rigs, I would imagine one could still get a bias that makes the shot look out of kilter...
 
Yeah I thought about putting a little bubble on top of my LCD screen while hand helding. But then if I do that, I will be too focus on the bubble instead of the picture so I ended up not doing that.
 
Kenneth Lau said:
Yeah I thought about putting a little bubble on top of my LCD screen while hand helding. But then if I do that, I will be too focus on the bubble instead of the picture so I ended up not doing that.
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What you'd need is a 'heads up' display, or at least something in your viewing screen that would 'relay' the level info, perhaps a light transparent gauge indicator... ala a aircraft attitude indicator. The iPhone and others have sensors which allow it to be used as a 'bubble' level, or 2-d level. Do any of the DSLRs have that these days?

I do enable the grid display in my camera always... but that may not be enough for 'realtime hand held' correction...
 
Both the D800 & GH3 have this feature. Think the 5D3 does too, but don't have mine with me to confirm.

I hate cluttered viewfinders & tend to turn-off all overlays.
 
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