Few things spoil a photograph as quickly as a sloping horizon. A lake that seems to be running downhill or a building that leans over never looks right, however lovely the scene. Most phone cameras offer help with this, in the form of a small level that appears on the screen. Look in the camera settings for grid lines or a level, sometimes called a guide. With the grid on, your screen is divided into squares by thin lines, and you can line up the horizon, a wall or a door frame with them. The level is usually a thin line or a pair of small marks in the centre of the screen. When the phone is straight, the line often changes colour or the marks join up. ## Looking down from above
The level has a second use that many people never discover. When you photograph something laid flat, such as a plate of food, a piece of paper, a craft project or a map on a table, you hold the phone above it, pointing straight down. In that position, the level often changes from a line to a small cross or two circles that must meet. When they do, the phone is exactly parallel to the surface, and the picture shows no tilt.
This matters because a phone held at a slight angle makes a rectangle look like a trapezium, with one side narrower than the other. Text on paper looks distorted, a square table looks skewed, and the whole thing seems careless. With the level, you avoid this almost effortlessly. Move the phone slowly until the marks meet, then take the picture without shifting your hand.
Watch out for your own shadow when shooting from above. If you stand between the light and the object, your body falls across the table. Move to the side, or pick a spot near a window so that the light comes in from one edge. Rest your elbows on the table, if you can, to steady the phone. If the picture still looks a little crooked, you can straighten it afterwards in the editing tools, but it is much easier to get it right at the start.
