The many half-timbered facades are a characteristic feature of Oberkirchen. Photographing them is an essential part of village photography. However, if you stand close to a building with your camera, the building often looks crooked in the photo. In the technical language one speaks in this case of "falling lines". They often have a disturbing effect.
Professional architectural photographers use so-called shift lenses to control the perspective. These are very expensive and are therefore only worthwhile for photographers who take a lot of architectural photos. Another option is to edit images with image editing programs and straighten the lines. This inevitably leads to a loss of image resolution and often to strange cropping. Hence my tip for two easy ways to deal with this effect:
Way 1:
Be sure to hold your camera exactly vertical when taking pictures. Do not tilt the camera backwards. If the image sensor is exactly parallel to the facade of the house, you won't get any plunging lines. However, you will then often not get the entire facade on the picture. Three tricks can help:
- Use such a wide angle that you still get the whole house on the picture, and later crop the lower half of the picture in the computer. (With this technique, however, you also lose a lot of image resolution).
- Find an elevated camera position - preferably half as high as the facade of the building you want to photograph.
- Move as far away from the building as possible and then zoom in on the building. The farther away you get, the less you'll have to tilt the camera and the less the lines will fall.
Way 2:
You simply accept the plunging lines. In this case, make absolutely sure that you photograph the building exactly in the center and that the lines fall symmetrically. If plunging lines are also uneven, they are doubly distracting.
Task:
Photograph the most beautiful Oberkirchen half-timbered facades. If you cannot avoid falling lines, make sure that the lines fall symmetrically. Take your time and try different shooting locations for each facade.
Share your results!
Want to share the images on social media? Use the following #hashtag and compare your results with those of the other photographers: #oberkirchenerfachwerk