Tjohn Loc: Inverness, FL formerly Arivaca, AZ

Sometimes. I took a few in SF with the cars and street on level. Funny how old buildings can lean.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some tilts are legitimate, like when the photographer is shooting at an angle, and tilting is inevitable. On the other hand, an erroneous tilt can be very annoying. If you find yourself getting a ruler to see if the line is tilted or not, you're going too far. : )

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Sorry if I am not understanding your post and with due respect, but i prefer to have my camera photograph what I see rather than have the camera, your Sony, make corrections for what it thinks I want. I will stick to my uneducated Nikon D800.

Dennis

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Set it manually or automatically, I have no problems. I'm just stating that a modern Pentax does have that ability.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

It is funny in a way when someone has a photo and they tell you how they set the camera for speed and light etc. and how they adjusted this and that in PP and it looks like they have not yet figured out how to hold the camera. Even putting the camera on a tripod does not make it level. I don't want to exclude myself in this, it is so easy to get hung up on technical things that basics get overlooked! That is just life!

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

I shoot almost exclusively handheld. I try to get everything level but just don't worry about it since I can, and do, fix it in Photoshop.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

oopps duplicate

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I have to be real carefull in composing because I have a habit of owe ring the camera body on the right before I press the shutter. I use the viewfinder grid but don't always pay attention to it. PP is my friend.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I usually leave the horizontal and vertical level indicators ON in the viewfinders of my Olympus cameras. If I have time to concentrate on them I try to get at least the horizontal right, but if I'm in a hurry I just ignore 'em. It's nice to have the option.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Because I have difficulty seeing the world straight (whether vertical or horizontal) because of an astigmatism, I'm very conscious of it in all photographs. I was most annoyed when even one that won an award for Outdoor Photographer had a crooked waterscape. (Another had sensor dust marks, so I guess they're not nearly as picky as they used to be.) I use the grid lines on my 5D, but sometimes when shooting fast I forget to even look. But I have to admit that having a crooked image ruins it for me. And I see no purpose whatsoever to those intentionally shot at an angle. I guess they're fanciful, but to my they just look crooked.

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Yes, I sometimes feel like all the water is going to run out one side of the photo.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Holding the camer "straight" is a basic skill that shoud be practiced, learned and mastered. I know that this sounds just too rudimentary but it's just as important as the other basics- exposure, composition and all the rest. There are some elementary steps that perhaps are neglected- we get so involved and preoccupied with all the high tech that oftentimes the basics go unaddressed.

We all know about L- brackets and grips, straps, devices and other means of steadying the camera so as to prevent blur due to camera movement or external vibration. The way we hold the camera and it's center of gravity is also a factor in precise horizontal and vertical alignment. When folks have trouble with this I recommend that analyze how are they holding the camer and if any additional accessories or correcting there technique would assist them in easier camera handling. One method of this analysis is holding the camera as you normally would in front of a mirror. This can reveal any unwanted tilting that occurs as a result of of an awkward or uncomfortable grip, stance or technique. Sometimes when folks are debating about which brand or model of camera to purchase, I advise that , features aside, to handle the camera with a compliment of potential lenses and fined one that is ergonomically suited to their hands, level of dexterity and and the way they work.

There are certain older and more current aids, in the viewfinder, to help with theses issues, however, nowadays, I find there is just too much data display going on in the viewfinder- my goodness- it look like a control room at NASA in there sometimes! It can be distraction when you need to concentrate on your subject- anticipate action or expressions and look after composition. If you can steady the camera without all the visual aids and bells and whistles you are probably better off. Grid lines are helpful but you need to have a reference point in the image. A level in the viewfinder? - OK if you are shooting architecture or some kind of slow moving or static subject- otherwise I would find it a distraction.

I would assume that most unwanted tilts occur in hand held operation. On a tripod- well, unless you are shooting fast action, there is no excuse! Many tripod heads do have bubble levels or you can add an accessory one to the camera's hot shoe. Or...just work carefully and if you can, use horizontal or vertical reference points in the scene and see that they are parallel to the edges of the fame- just line them up[!

Then there is the issue of purposefully tilting the camera dynamic compositions or special effects. Nothing wrong with that but it is oftentimes done arbitrarily, by some photographers, just for the sake of doing it- at one time it became a kinda fad. Some call it the "French" tilt and this can be a valid technique to use in portraiture and other kinds of work, however when it is NOT done with subtlety or careful attention to compositional integrity and calls attention to itself, I call it the "vertigo" tilt. It gets the viewers a little dizzy and you find them tilting their heads at extreme angles to trying and correct or compensate for the tilt their brains! One year, this tilt thing became rampant in wedding photography. I was sitting a judging panel at a print competition and after viewing dozes of tiled compositions, I though I would need a chiropractor or and ophthalmologist. Imagine, a formal shot of an entire bridal party in a garden standing at 45 degrees and there is no perceivable hill or incline- you just hope there isn't a nearby lake 'cause they're at gonna fall in!

By the way, this tilting thing ain't nothin' new. Have a look at some of those classic Hollywood portraits of the 1930s and 40s! At the first studio I work in, we had an 8x10 "portrait camera" with a rotating back. The thing was on a massive wooden and iron camera stand that coud tilt up and down but not sideways and, of course we could not flip the camera for horizontal and vertical compositions- it had to weigh at least 100 lbs. The back rotated for horizontal and vertical orientation but we effected tilts by rotating the back to somewhere in between. It was also common practice to rotate the enlarging easel for tilting things and correcting accidental tilts.

If you are going to tilt a flower image or something like that- make certin there is no straight horizontal or vertical reference point in the composition. Oh, if you do want to add a sense of chaos, disorientation or tension to any image or scene- just tilt away- why not?! All my anti-tilting tips are for UNWANTED tilts!

Of course, when working on the fly or under rushed circumstances and find perfectly great shot is "ruined" by a tilted horizon or something like that, if the is enough space and the aspect ratios allows, it's easy enough to clean it up in post procession or, for that matter, add a dynamic tilt at that stage.

Who's old enough to remember the "TILT" thing on pinball machines? It worked with a mercury switch and a relay that would stop the game, flash on the "tilt" ligh and some had a an annoying "honk" sound. if the machine was tilted to cheat by redirecting the balls. The soda shop on the corner had one where that mechanism did not work- that was my favorite machine! For a nickel, I could play all day, that was, until the owner threw me out- what a (soda) JERK!

melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

Adjusting level in post is easy, but be aware that the process reduces pixel count.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

My Sony a6300 has a 'level' indicator in the viewfinder.

Lemon Drop Kid Loc: Greeley, CO

I once was chastised for a slanting horizon when the ground level was rising, left to right.