How do I make sure that my camera is completely parallel to a wall?

[PaulSchneider]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering: After having evened-out the camera so that is completely parallel to the floor - say with an ARCA cube - is there a technique with which I can make sure that the camera is completely parallel to a wall I want to photograph? Or do you guys just do trial and error?

Regards

Paul

[JonathanBenoit]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering: After having evened-out the camera so that is completely parallel to the floor - say with an ARCA cube - is there a technique with which I can make sure that the camera is completely parallel to a wall I want to photograph? Or do you guys just do trial and error?

Regards

Paul

You need  http://www.zig-align.com/ . It ensures that the object is perfectly parallel

[Joe Behar]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering: After having evened-out the camera so that is completely parallel to the floor - say with an ARCA cube - is there a technique with which I can make sure that the camera is completely parallel to a wall I want to photograph? Or do you guys just do trial and error?

Regards

Paul

Paul,

There are a number of ways to do this.

You can use a device called a ZigAlign

You can use a simple lazer pointer mounted on your camera and a mirror on the wall. The reflected beam should align with the source if the camera is perfectly perpendicular to the wall.

You can also do this visually by using 2 vertical objects that are in line with one another. One is close to the wall and the second some distance away. If you look through your viewfinder and both verticals are aligned, you are perpendicular to the wall.

I'm sure there are other ways, but the theory behind them all is the same...light travels in straight lines.

[Rob C]

Keith, I think Hasselblad produced more or less what you decribe, but I think it is no longer made...

On other smoke and mirror tricks: today I had to drive for an hour across the island in order to visit the principal police station in Palma in order to get my residency permit replaced. Instead of another credit card-like one, they have changed to a document that's in glorious A4 paper. Just right for fitting into rich Gucci wallets - but hardly into mine. So far, so cool. However, on getting to Fuzz Central I discovered there was nowhere in the district to park: solid, and I was there around 9am. After about ten minutes of cruising and waiting, I decided to head across town to a hospital I know too well and use their large pay-park. The taxi back to FC was 9 euros. The return run was ten euros. The hospital carpark was 6.60 euros. But, that's not all: going to the gestoria (legal eagle) earlier in the week to get the documents to take to FC involved me in getting a ticket for parking in a zone I had not realised was no loger free. The fine I am awaiting is 30 euros. The legal document cost 10 euros (which can't be paid in cash to anyone, but has to be paid in via a bank!) and the legal fee was twenty - that was very nice, thank you, in cash.

That means this permit cost not the basic ten, but a grand total of 85.60 euros.

What's a little mirror in the general scheme of things?

Rob C

[Rob C]

Paul,

There are a number of ways to do this.

You can use a device called a ZigAlign

You can use a simple lazer pointer mounted on your camera and a mirror on the wall. The reflected beam should align with the source if the camera is perfectly perpendicular to the wall.

You can also do this visually by using 2 vertical objects that are in line with one another. One is close to the wall and the second some distance away. If you look through your viewfinder and both verticals are aligned, you are perpendicular to the wall.

I'm sure there are other ways, but the theory behind them all is the same...light travels in straight lines.

Joe, who says that the two vertical poles are placed so that they make a right angle? You'd need to carry a very large T-square to achieve that, otherwise they could be at any old angle but would inevitably still line up, one with the other. Also, once you have them perfectly aligned in one plane, your troubles still exist: you might well have the camera parallel to the wall, left-to-right, but how do you know you are not pointing up or down?

Rob C

[CBarrett]

I usually use a 6 inch level to make sure the camera is level and plumb, then just rotate until a prominent horizontal element (such as a ceiling plane) lines up with the groundglass (or the grid in C1 Pro).

-CB

I would like to have a really precise level machined, though!

[Joe Behar]

Joe, who says that the two vertical poles are placed so that they make a right angle? You'd need to carry a very large T-square to achieve that, otherwise they could be at any old angle but would inevitably still line up, one with the other. Also, once you have them perfectly aligned in one plane, your troubles still exist: you might well have the camera parallel to the wall, left-to-right, but how do you know you are not pointing up or down?

Rob C

Rob,

Its easy...all it takes is a tape measure. You measure to the middle of the wall from one end and place a vertical object (like a light stand, extended),  move a few feet further away from the first vertical object and place your second obect the same distance from the end of the wall. If they line up you're perfectly perpendicular to the wall. This works with reasonable distances, but not for macro.

As far as pointing up and down, the best solution to that is a spirit level.

I've done this many times and it works wonderfully.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I usually use a 6 inch level to make sure the camera is level and plumb, then just rotate until a prominent horizontal element (such as a ceiling plane) lines up with the groundglass (or the grid in C1 Pro).

-CB

I would like to have a really precise level machined, though!

Hi CB,

The length of a (spirit) level only matters if you also have a known/intended flat surface of that length.

What really matters is to have a surface that has a known relation to the surface one is trying to align. Then one can apply a really accurate level to that surface (length) and determine its level of aberration from the norm. The only way I know of getting a perfect reference is by applying 2 measurements, one at a given orientation, and one at a 180 degrees rotated orientation. Any error will level out perfectly that way.

Now, having a level orientation, that still leaves the question whether the object is perfectly aligned, and if the sensor plane is perfectly aligned. Only a mirror will reveal the optical alignment in the viewfinder, which still leaves the sensor alignment. For that, one needs to use "Live View".

Lining up the subject plane with the sensor plane is the only usable solution (and then there is lens field curvature to account for ...).

Cheers,
Bart

P.S. I use, besides a mirror for plan-parallel orientation (if possible), a digital level that allows a good degree of accuracy and user calibration (to offset electronics drift, temperature). The DigiPas DWL-80 Pro level seems to fit most of my requirements (note, the Pro version allows a 0.05 degree readout/calibration). FWIW, they also sell through eBay.

[elf]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering: After having evened-out the camera so that is completely parallel to the floor - say with an ARCA cube - is there a technique with which I can make sure that the camera is completely parallel to a wall I want to photograph? Or do you guys just do trial and error?

Regards

Paul

First you have to define the tolerances

[paulmoorestudio]

slapping the mirror on the wall always worked for me..

[marc gerritsen]

slapping the mirror on the wall always worked for me..

+1

as long as the mirror is flat against the wall
i used to shoot a lot of art work in different sizes and had indeed a piece of mirror against the wall
and lined the middle of the viewfinder up with the refection of the middle of the lens
with the different sizes it was easy to get a perfect set up each time in the minimum amount of time
if the photos were slightly rotated by a degree or so they could be lined up again much easier in photoshop

m

[K.C.]

I've had one of these for 20+ years. You place it on the wall or surface you want to be aligned to and then rotate the spirit level. Then take it over to your camera and align the camera until it's the same.

[Dick Roadnight]

slapping the mirror on the wall always worked for me..

The great thing about a simple mirror system is that you can use gravity to keep the copy on the copy stand, without tripod legs getting in the way, e.g. at a convenient angle of about 45 degrees. It would even work in orbit (where bubble levels would not work).

If you want to photograph a wall, do not assume that the wall is vertical!

Plumb lines are more accurate than bubble levels (and cheap).

The zig-align web site seems to try to make the simple seem complicated!

[ced]

You obviously haven't visited parts of the world where neither the walls nor the ceilings are parallel...

[Dick Roadnight]

You obviously haven't visited parts of the world where neither the walls nor the ceilings are parallel...

If I found a wall that was parallel to a ceiling...

My house is over 100 years old, and the walls in the back of the house are less vertical than those at the front, and there are hundreds of buildings hundreds of years old in the area, many with ceilings at 30 or 40 degrees!

[CBarrett]

I've had one of these for 20+ years. You place it on the wall or surface you want to be aligned to and then rotate the spirit level. Then take it over to your camera and align the camera until it's the same.

I've had that exact same one... for maybe 15 years and love it.  I've actually had assistants use it to set all the monitors at the same tilt in office interiors.  That's not crazy, right?  Definitely not.  Definitely set all the monitors to 72 deg.  All the monitors to seventy two degrees but not on Thursdays never on thursdays.

CB

[CBarrett]

You obviously haven't visited parts of the world where neither the walls nor the ceilings are parallel...

LoL... well they do often disagree... but a horizontal edge (usually close to the edge of the shot) is going to be the most noticeable thing out of square, so that's what I go by... for interiors work.

WooHOOO  I just installed CS 5. 64 bit Baby!

[paulmoorestudio]

If I found a wall that was parallel to a ceiling...

My house is over 100 years old, and the walls in the back of the house are less vertical than those at the front, and there are hundreds of buildings hundreds of years old in the area, many with ceilings at 30 or 40 degrees!

I guess if you have walls, floor and ceilings that are out of whack then all you really need is a tripod and an eyeball to get you close to level..

[JonathanBenoit]

I'm sure he is looking for the most precise method which is employed for high end fine art reproduction. Zig-Align and even Dian-Align are really the only options I have found. Dian-Align makes it possible without touching the material which, in most cases is a requirement.

For this type of work, getting it close is not close enough.

[Harold Clark]

If I found a wall that was parallel to a ceiling...

My house is over 100 years old, and the walls in the back of the house are less vertical than those at the front, and there are hundreds of buildings hundreds of years old in the area, many with ceilings at 30 or 40 degrees!

It isn't only old houses that are crooked. I was doing photos of some houses in a new subdivision a few years ago with my 4x5 sinar. The levels were all adjusted dead accurate, but the grid lines were running off a bit on the ground glass. As it turned out, the houses were off, not the camera.