Straight is this week’s theme for Sunday Stills photo challenge. Thank you to Graham of Graham’s Island for the theme idea!
Straight conjures up endless meanings in phrases like “Let’s get something straight,” as my post suggests. Or “on the straight and narrow”…you get the idea.
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
Helen Keller
Getting it Straight
In photography, straight is an ideal when it comes to lines and perspective. One example, when photographing water landscapes, is to be sure your horizon is straight, or it looks like the water is pouring off the Earth.
This is easily achieved in your post-editing process whether you use your phone’s software, mobile editing apps, or your computer’s software like lightroom or other online editing programs. I use PicMonkey for most of my edits and Lightroom for the complicated ones.
In this example, someone took this photo of me windsurfing. The old boat listing to the side really emphasizes the tilt to the horizon. When you straighten the horizon as shown in the next image, be aware that you may lose some of the image while editing.
For landscape photography, straightening the horizon is one of the first items I edit, in addition to cropping and adjusting exposure.
When working with horizontal and vertical lines, I recommend straightening the lines as shown below in the hummingbird image. The lines of the building in the background are somewhat off vertical.
In this image, I relied on several post-editing technics such as cropping, straightening, exposure, saturation, and sharpening.
In this case, I used a filter (Painnt) in post-editing which emphasized the vertical lines.
Which one do you like best?
Some Examples of Straight
“Straight is the path and narrow the road that leads a wandering soul back home.”
Linda Poindexter
These examples are from images I took at Sacramento State University over the last few years.
Climbing straight up. In a perspective shot like this, notice the right side of the climbing wall is straight, skewing the other lines in the image.
Walking the straight and narrow along the Guy West Bridge.
Taken at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, there are so many intersecting lines in this image. Do I straighten the students on land or do I straighten the water on the horizon? No matter what, something in this image will not be straight. In this case, I straightened the horizon but cropped the photo to emphasize the students using teamwork as they try to stay straight on the path.
I couldn’t resist adding this little hummingbird’s vertically straight beak. I wonder what he was looking at?
“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
Maya Angelou
June themes are available to view on my Sunday Stills page.
What does the theme “straight” mean to you this week? Show us in your photos, music, poetry, and stories.
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