dieseldave Loc: Davenport,IA

Every now and then things at the edges of my photos are slanted. See attachment, telephone pole and sign.. What causes this?

(Download)

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Gravity?

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Actually, it looks like a wide-angle lens at its widest, giving a "fish-eye" effect.

Strofam

If your camera is not perfectly horizontal when you shoot, you will get type of distortion that your photo shows. Watch thru the view finder and move the camera up and down. You will see the poles lean, either in or out as you pass horizontal.

CO

I agree with this. Try standing further back and taking a shot of the same scene with a longer focal length. Compare the results.

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

I believe this is caused by tilting the camera down to include the foreground. This like pointing the camera up to take pictures of tall buildings, the parallel lines converge toward the top, in this case they converge toward the bottom.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

A very WA Zoom? And tilting the lens and camera.

My WA lenses are all primes and give little distortion.

You could fix it considerably with Photoshop using Transform controls.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Dave, chances are you took this photo with a somewhat wide angle lens. Additionally, the camera was probably pointed upwards slightly. Some wide angle lenses are more prone to this than others. However, the upward tilt of the camera will accent this issue even more so.
--Bob

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Agree

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

markie1425 Loc: Bryn Mawr, PA

Many post-processing apps of varying sophistication include transformation tools to correct that skew.

I did my correction in 30 seconds using PhotoScape X. I think that the pole at very left is warped, so I left it alone.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Well done.

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

18mm will do it every time. ;-)

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Funny that you realize there is a slant in your images and use vertical lines to check it...

Actually you can depend ONLY on a vertical line, preferably in the center (there is no rule so 'preferably' is... well just that).

As to what causes this, it is only the way you hold your camera. Few photographers (I am not one of them) hold their camera properly all the time. This is similar to the way one holds a rifle; given the same rifle the scope or line of sight has to be modified to the person.

Bob mentions that the lens used will accentuate the visibility of the holding problem (and distortion). This is true. Correcting this in Post Processing (PP) is possible but you will lose some of your vision so to achieve your goal you need to plan for PP and loosen/widen your angle of view by stepping back or selecting another lens if you cannot. The other more 'troublesome' solution is to use a tripod and adjust the camera horizontal position on it. Bob is also known for carrying a heavy tripod...

Anyway, you have very little to worry about, just:
- Change the way you hold your camera (hardest to do - Select a vertical line, align the camera viewer border to it, recompose w/o slanting the camera again)
- Use PP and plan for it (easiest - check the correction offered and see the cropping taking place)
- Use a tripod (most accurate for so many reasons and the best solution).