When it comes to photography, I’m so super picky about horizons. A crooked horizon is one thing I have a hard time overlooking when looking at a photograph. There. I said it. Simply put, one simple way to take a photo from “that’s pretty” to “wow, that’s amazing” is to be mindful of the horizon. Whenever I take any type of photograph, I always focus on trying to keep the horizon horizontal. And, if it’s not horizontal, then I edit the photograph to adjust the horizon.

When the eye sees a photograph with a crooked horizon, something registers as though something is just not right. The viewer’s eye can often become distracted. The last thing you want to do when capturing a moment is distract the viewer from the subject of the photograph. So, whether you do it while you’re taking the photograph or later when editing the photograph, be sure to straighten the horizon and it will make a world of a difference. This is a simple trick that you can use while photographing—either with your phone camera or DSLR—that will turn your photos into frame-worthy memories.

When taking the photo, you might not notice that the horizon is a little not so horizontal. Don’t worry. Why? There are two main approaches on getting horizontal horizons. First, make sure to keep your camera or phone straight when taking photos. Second, you can address a crooked horizon during post-processing. So, don’t stress out about it. It’s an easy fix.

With two seconds of editing, you can achieve a horizontal horizon. Simply take the photo, pop that photo into an editor if need be, and rotate the image until the horizon is horizontal. Also, many mobile devices have a “straighten” option that you can select. With one click of a button, you can have an image with a straight horizon that looks professional and polished.

 

If you don’t have the straighten option on your phone, then use the editor grid to your advantage. In your photo editor, click crop, then rotate the image until the horizon is in line with one of the horizontal grid lines in your editor. Once you get the horizon horizontal (in line with one of the horizontal grid lines), click save, and then export the image to your phone’s gallery or to a file on your computer.

It’s a quick fix and you are going to love the results.