Be Careful About That Horizon

Guest Post | Mar 26, 2008 | Comments View Comments

This guest article was written by Antoine Khater. Along with being a great photographer and enthusiast Antoine also authors All Day I Dream About Photography where you can find more splendid articles on composition and more!

Look at these two pictures of trees, which one is more appealing for you?
Is it only because of the sunset colors? Watch the horizon carefully in both, do you notice the difference?
Maybe one of the most basic composition rules is NOT to cut your subject with the horizon, doing this will considerably weaken your picture’s effect. The easiest solution to this problem is NOT shooting from eye level. Going for a low or high viewpoint will shift the horizon up or down in the frame. You can choose to completely remove the horizon (like in the second picture) or to shift it enough to barely cut your main subject.

For example, try to imagine the first picture with the horizon cutting the tree lower in the trunk just above the rocks at the first twist. Can you see this as a “stronger” composition?

Photographs:

“One Hundred Years of Solitude”-Loneliness by januz
my tree at dusk by joiseyshowaa

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Antoine was kind enough to do a guest post in the event that I got tied up. We will continue our lesson on lighting techniques early next week. This is the perfect excuse for me to plug a subscription to our rss feed. If you don’t know what an rss feed is find out here.

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