low horizon line photography

mccullin March 22, 2022 horizon , line , photography Comment

The Rule of the Horizon Line and the Rule of Thirds try to avoid having the various important subjects of a photograph end up in a position in the shot that brings us close to a dangerous symmetry which usually lurks in the center or middle of the. The high horizon in this photo was an obvious choice as the sky was particularly plain and uninteresting on the evening that I took this photo.

Why Horizon Line Is Important For Landscape Photography Photojeepers

If an amazing rainbow or a bank of storm clouds are the most interesting aspect of your scene it makes sense to highlight them by lowering your horizon and making the sky the center of attention.

. This can also be a great way to use negative space to draw the viewers eye to your subject. A low horizon line will be placed in the bottom third of your image. A low horizon line is used to emphasize elements such as a dramatic sky or centers of interest above the horizon.

When photographing a person included with a horizon background its considered poor composition if the horizontal line formed by the horizon cuts through your subjects eyes or beheads them at the shoulders. The horizon line in photography is the line where the sky separates from land or water. At the other end of the spectrum a high horizon line tells the viewer that the sky or area above the horizon is not the visual goal of the image.

A low horizon line is useful when you want to highlight a dramatic sky. A low horizon line is used to emphasize elements such as a dramatic sky or subjects above the horizon. Use a low horizon line to emphasize the sky.

The solution to avoid this is easy lower or raise your camera lens to change the perspective or your field of view. If you want to accentuate the calming stable impact of a horizon one effective technique to use is to shoot your images with horizontal framing with the longest part of your cameras frame from. A low horizon gives dominance to the sky to help emphasise the movement of the clouds A high horizon Conversely to above placing the horizon towards the top of the frame gives dominance to the lower portion of the image allowing you to emphasise foreground detail to draw the viewer through to a sky.

Andrey Snurnitsyn placed the horizon along the bottom line of the rule of thirds grid so the dramatic sky could fill most of the space in the image. When we place the line here the sky is the main focus of our images. Horizons are the most common horizontal line to be found in photographs and they often act as a dividing point in a photograph in effect an anchor that the rest of the image is formed around.

Now that weve covered why you want to include a high or a low horizon lets have a look at some examples. However putting the horizon line higher will center attention on the land and putting the horizon line lower will give the sky center stage. The horizon line tends to be the actual height of the viewers eyes.

Where To Position That Horizon