Firstly, I went out to take these simply when I could grab the time rather than wait for the best conditions. It turned out to be right around the end of the day and the light was failing fast. Still, there was enough for the purpose of this exercise.
Secondly, I rushed (remember about the rapidly failing light I mentioned?) and rather than set the exposure manually as I normally would for landscapes, I left the camera on aperture priority mode. As such, it metered differently for each photo taken. Shooting raw saved my butt with regards to the varying exposures and converting to black and white was the remedial action required for the rubbish light.
For the location, I went up to Hatherleigh moor and looked out towards Dartmoor as the horizon is about 10 miles distant and pretty unbroken.
Very low horizon
Doesn’t work that well as its more or less all sky. Little foreground interest.
A slightly higher horizon
Horizon positioned to include the line of trees in the foreground. Still not massively interesting although there is some added interest as the landscape is is beginning to gain some depth.
Horizon a third of the way up
With the horizon positioned along the line of the bottom third of of the frame, we now have the addition of a fence providing some foreground interest and a convenient line to draw the eye across the frame. This one works.
Horizon centrally positioned
Not such an interesting composition as the one before as the extra foreground doesn’t add anything to the frame.
Horizon higher still..
Not a lot to mention here except for the fact its beginning to add some slightly distracting elements to the bottom of the frame.
Horizon in top sixth of the frame
Things have gone really wrong now with the top of the hedge being added to the foreground. Its addition grabs immediate attention and draws the eye immediately away from the rest of the frame.
To summarize things..
As demonstrated by the photos taken for this exercise, positioning the horizon is a case of striking up the right balance when it comes to landscapes. Too low and you can end up with no interesting foreground detail and too high and you risk adding either unnecessary foreground details. In the case of this scene having the foreground occupy the bottom third of the frame worked the best.
Gareth Trenaman 