Positioning the Horizon

Before doing this exercise, my only thoughts on positioning the horizon were to consider whether you wanted to show more land or more sky. On days such as the one shown here, I might have included more sky in the shot than on days where it held less interest. For me in this set, the clouds hold as much interest as the corn so for now; the level of interest can be ignored in search of other effects.

Starting with the horizon very low in shot 1, the result is that of a shallow and very wide looking field with the sky above appearing less wide, yet showing much more depth. In shot 2 with the horizon slightly higher, the extra depth to the field makes it look less wide than in the previous shot, whereas the sky now looks wider.

I find the third shot the most interesting. As a result of the horizon being along the centre of the shot, both the width and depth of the land and sky are equal. The effect of this balance is that the eye is drawn to the horizon and in this particular set; I feel that more depth is created in the picture as a whole.

As we move through the subsequent shots, the higher the horizon gets, the deeper and narrower the field looks and the wider and shallower the sky looks.

Although the height of the horizon has a significant effect on the depth of different elements of the shot, there is another contributing factor: in the latter shots, more foreground interest is shown, drawing the eye to the front of the scene. I have noticed that the cottage in shot 6 looks bigger and closer than in shot 1. Logically, I would have thought that with the extra appearance of depth to the field, the cottage would have looked further away. Checking through the mid-range shots, I have found that as the field gets deeper, the cottage does seem further away and it is only the introduction of foreground interest that brings the cottage closer.

Having discovered these effects, I feel a need to explore my findings further by repeating the exercise with different landscapes. I would also like to explore the effect of the horizon in the same place but with and without foreground interest.

Balance

The following images have been chosen from my collection in order to show how the balance works in each photo. If two objects are of different sizes, they can be balanced by placing the larger object closer to the centre and the smaller object closer to the edge on the other side of the scale.

In this photo the boy and the thick tree are close to the middle of the shot. With the girl being further back, she looks smaller so the balance works as she and the thinner, therefore lighter tree are placed closer to the edge of the shot.

The lady and the bin in this shot balance each other well as they are similar in both size and distance from the centre. Although the pier is a single object, I feel that it can be split in two to show balance. The section at the end of the pier where the rides and buildings are taller sits close to the middle of the shot. This is balanced out by the smaller section of the pier which reaches right to the left hand edge.

The boy on the right of this shot takes up more space than the girl and doors to the left; however the slither of door to the far left makes up the difference. I feel that the fact that the subjects to the left are darker also makes them seem heavier.

This photo shows an example of a large object just left of centre being balanced by a smaller object to the far right. I feel that the balanced is also helped by the right hand object being half way up the shot which helps to weigh this side down.

The girl in this shot is just slightly to the right of centre. In order to maintain balance, the man who appears much smaller has been placed midway between the centre and the left edge.

The skater lagging behind sits to the far right of this shot balancing out the much larger group just left of centre.