Rule of thirds....and composition rules! Too many damn rules....just go shoot what looks right!
I always try and shoot so that lines are straight, but I've found that what I get in-camera almost always needs tweaking. I attribute some of that to poor camera holding technique where the shutter depression will roll the camera to the right a degree. The key is to try and keep lines such that they won't look "off" when you get the shot into your computer. One of the biggest for me is making sure that I'm dead center on a shot I want to look symmetrical. I can't tell you how many shots I've gone to process and realized I was 1/2 step off or less, but it's noticeable.
The rule of thirds that Chris mentions are important but not critical. Composition is the thoughtful putting together of the subject, but it doesn't always have to be on the third - but if it's not, then it can feel off to many people if there isn't something to balance the change from the norm.
182/365.....matchsticks
Wasn't a very inspiring day photography wise for me yesterday
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As you can see here, all your trees lean left. To me they're more important than the horizon line. With wide angles and certain perspectives you're not going to be able to get them
all to be straight, but there should be a balance unless the skew is part of the composition, in which case I believe it should be obviously the case and not give the feeling of sloppy composition.
OK...so playing with the colours is a bit over my current ppíng skills in CS6, but I had a go & converted to B&W and straightened (is it straight IYO?). I'm not that keen on B&W as I said so have no idea if it is any good
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This is definitely better. I'm not sure if it is possible to play with the original RAW file to get the blues in the sky to darken so that when converting to B&W you can play the sky against the trees using "filters" in post. What B&W conversion software do you have? The original looks pretty blown out in the sky, but it might be possible in LR to darken it somewhat. The 640px images linked here are too small for me to try anything with. Regardless, I find this image to be an improvement over the original. As you said, some days with the camera are better than others.
