Do you have a problem taking photographs that are straight and level? Are the buildings and trees in your images on a slant? If you have this problem (and most of us do at least some of the time) then using a bubble level can help eliminate the problem.
The bubble level is a small device used to level the camera, allowing you to avoid taking crooked pictures. The most common type is a small double level which fits into the flash shoe on the camera.
(c) 2003 William Lawrence
To level the camera, simply move the camera until the bubble is between the two bands, exactly like a carpenter’s level. The two levels let you use this in either portrait or landscape orientation.
(c) 2003 William Lawrence
We’ve found the level to be most useful when your camera is mounted on a tripod, especially when taking natural landscape photos, as there is rarely a perfectly horizontal or vertical edge to line up the shot.
These two photos of the Capitol dome show how the bubble level helps. The upper photo was taken after someone bumped the camera on the tripod. With a bubble level, we would have easily noticed it was out of alignment. The second photo was taken using a bubble level to make sure the photo was level. While you could crop and rotate the first photo to make the dome level, it’s much easier to take a good photo in the first place than to have to correct the problems later.
(c) 2003 William Lawrence
(c) 2003 William Lawrence
We prefer using a hot shoe type level to the circular bubble levels that are part of many tripods. A circular level mounted on a tripod will let you know if your tripod legs are level – it often doesn’t help with leveling the tripod head or your camera.
(c) 2003 William Lawrence
Bubble levels are one of those handy photo gadgets that really do make it much easier to take better photos.