Level horizons

[thebeardedgroundsman]

I don't wish to criticise other photographers but ... Why do some people have trouble achieving level horizons in their photos?

With the level facility on most Sony Alphas and most editing software (even on photo sites like Flickr) it should be easy enough to achieve.

It is most noticeable where water is on the horizon, as water finds it's own level - one degree out can spoil a brilliant photo.

Maybe, after 40 odd years of landscaping, I notice these things more than most - I don't know.

[8201]

So many otherwise awesome shots are ruined by unintentional sloped horizons. No real excuse these days. 

[VTC]

Face it, some people are just sloppy photographers, even when they're in the Big Leagues.

From IMDB regarding the film noire movie TENSION under Goofs:

Beach fight scene. World round the ocean is level but not in this movie. Cameramans first objective is to level the equipment, particularly when the horizon is such a prominent element especially when dealing with water. Here it's 0.69 to 2.0394 degrees off level depending upon whether the shot is along the beach or straight out to sea. (At its worse in the solo shot of Claire.)

[Aldowski]

Sometimes, when talking with colleagues, some of them are, for example (when viewing photos), immediately saying about (slight) vignetting as "issue", even I do not consider that as an issue at all. There are even some photos when the "issue" is helpful.

But, I strongly agree that leveling (horizons) can be checked (at camera screen, during photographing) and easily fixed, especially when taking photos at water surface environments.

In postprocessing, there are utilities for "lossless rotation" issue fixing as well.