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Composition & Visual Design

Horizon Line

The line where sky meets land or sea, which in a photograph always sits at the camera's own eye level.

In depth

Its height in the frame is a compositional decision with immediate consequences: high gives weight to the foreground, low gives weight to the sky, and dead centre divides the picture into two competing halves. Its levelness is non-negotiable on water, where the eye detects a fraction of a degree of tilt.

Examples in practice

Dropping the horizon to the lower third turns a landscape into a study of a dramatic sky.