← Photographic Vision: Find the Shot Before You Press the Button
Lesson
Lesson 7. A line running through the person
A horizon through the neck
A long horizontal line — the curb, a parapet, the roofline — behaves like a cut in a photo. If it runs through the neck or the head, the eye reads it as part of the figure, and the head seems to come off.
It's fixed not by turning the camera but by the camera height: crouch, and the line drops from the head to the waist; stand up taller, and it creeps up toward the neck. The second way is to move the frame vertically so a gap opens between the line and the head.
Lesson notes
A long horizontal line — the curb, a parapet, the roofline — behaves like a cut in a photo. If it runs through the neck or the head, the eye reads it as part of the figure, and the head seems to come off.
It's fixed not by turning the camera but by the camera height: crouch, and the line drops from the head to the waist; stand up taller, and it creeps up toward the neck. The second way is to move the frame vertically so a gap opens between the line and the head.