Every Photographer Should Use Horizons Like Spielberg
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- Опубликовано: 18 ноя 2023
- Explore the transformative power of horizons in visual storytelling with this enlightening video. Join us as we delve into a pivotal moment between legendary directors Steven Spielberg and John Ford, unveiling the profound impact of horizon placement in image composition. Discover how this simple yet crucial element shapes viewer perception, emotion, and narrative depth in both film and photography.
Drawing inspiration from iconic works, including Ansel Adams' landscapes and Spielberg's cinematic masterpieces, we unravel the artistry behind horizon lines. Whether high or low, each position tells a unique story, from conveying vastness and freedom to creating a sense of confinement and intensity. This video not only educates but also inspires photographers and filmmakers to think critically about their creative decisions.
Learn the secrets behind crafting visually compelling and emotionally resonant images. Understand the subtle yet powerful language of horizons and elevate your visual storytelling skills. Whether you're a seasoned image maker or an aspiring artist, this video is a treasure trove of insights waiting to be explored 
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I've placed horizons high or low in many of my images, without thinking about why. I simply compose something that satisfies me. Thanks for prodding me to to think about *why* I do things.
It's great to hear you're listening to your inner voice about what feels right :D
I’ve found I’m partial to a low horizon, but this has given me words to understand why. Thanks for that!
Your welcome
Great photo of the church ceiling ! Those large format cameras are unsurpassed for detail and the waterfall pics Ansel took proves it.
I teach not to put the horizon through the center of a frame, but then I also direct students to look at Hiroshui Sugmoto's seascapes and decide what is right for the image.
Also not a fan of central horizons, unless it's square format. Then it's easier on the eye.
I always think about horizon when I take photos but never thought this way. This is very eye opening to me. It feels like it was right under my nose in plain sight but I didn't noticed it. As I've been watching your video, I can certainly feel my photographic vision is gradually developing. Thank you so much Alex.
Great to hear that this is helping you think a bit deeper about the horizon
I watched The Fablemmens & the scene at the end about horizons was absolutely brilliant. I never thought about horizons prior & it simply changed by view about a scene. I’m glad you did these video. I look at these great master filmmakers simply has photographers first. Horizons dominate Westerns because it’s shoot in the Great Plains.
Yes, I'd never really thought about them like that either - so figured it would be a good idea for a video :D Thanks for watching
@@ThePhotographicEye Also photography in closed spaces is another area that I’m interested in. I’m reading the book “Making Movies” by filmmaker Sydney Lumet. He talks about the film 12 Angry Men & how he used various lenses to distort the courtroom to create different emotions about what the characters are going through. He says it can very difficult to make something look interesting for 2 hours for an audience when a film only involves a few locations. The film All the President’s Men which is available currently on BBC IPlayer has multiple scenes set in the Washington Post newsroom & the newsroom never looks identical from a perspective point of view. Use of wide angles & sweeping dolly track shots completely elevate an everyday office environment. For me this compositional & perspective genius. With regards to John Ford he got his compositional sense from paintings of landscapes. Westerns are about great landscapes. I’m going through a massive cinematography phase & indulgence in relationship to my photography. I wanted to explore an alternative type of photography. Thanks
rewatched Murder by the book directed by Spielberg in 71, very informative content.
Thank you
That picture by Fletcher at 4:28, sometimes when something is right in the center of the frame like that it works well in black and white. Symmetry often works well in black and white and often is boring in color.
I've always enjoyed Toshio Shibata and his frames without a sky, or lack of horizon. Makes you think about everything you include in a frame differently.
I did consider including him, but felt the video would be overly long.
@@ThePhotographicEye Speaking for myself, I don't mind long videos if they have value and substance.
Amongst the swamp that is photography content on RUclips, from drama, arguments, camera reviews and "my lens is bigger than yours" discussions, yours are the only ones I watch when I decide to watch anything at all.
Keep it up and thank you for your work.
Never thought of the horizon this way, thank you so much!
Thank you for watching.
I am not an experienced professional but for Landscape this is as important as the tried-and-true rule of thirds, leading lines or whatever. Thanks Alex.
My pleasure Andrew. I'm glad you found it helpful and thought provoking
Terrific video with lots to chew on!
thanks for taking the time to watching it. What was the most interesting part for you?
Story, subject then composition … I get it! Thank you … I’ll incorporate this into my landscape photography and sailing videos! 📷⛰️⛵️🎥☕️😀
Thanks for watching - it's great to have you here!
what was beat into our heads in school was Concept Concept! Content. Composition. But I like your kinder advice Story, subject, composition. 🙂
I like your saying as well! Concept, content, composition - lets use them both
Another thing that Spielberg does very well is concentrating on one person or small group of people such as a family or squad of soldiers, and then communicating (after that intimate look) that many people are experiencing stories of their own like that. For instance, in Schindler's list that Jewish family is gathering up what belongings it can including their religious icons and the camera follows them down to the street and then zooms out to see thousands of Jews who were also evicted on that same street and the sound level of them all is then heard. Similarly, when that small group of American soldiers is followed onto the beach at Normandy in Saving Private Ryan and then, when the Allies gain a foothold and things settle down a bit, Tom Hanks' character looks down the beach at all the chaos and one is reminded of the tens of thousands of such stories. One sees the scale of thousands upon thousands after one intimate look, and the emotional "punch" of that.
That scene in Indiana Jones at 6:20 with that one crate and then one sees that entire warehouse of crates reminded me of all that.
Thank you Alex, for a very important lesson. You are a wonderful story teller and I enjoy just listening to your sweep and voice as much as the context of the story itself.
My pleasure!
Hi Alex, great footage of Steven Spielberg he has a great sense of humor, and i think he would have made a great photographer. Thanks for showing us some great photos, especially Ansel Adams and his beautiful Landscape photos. Cheers 😃
My pleasure, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for always commenting!
@@ThePhotographicEye Your very welcome Alex I always enjoy your videos 😊
Ford used an interesting optical effect to extend the depth of field in his low horizon shots that is rarely used today- the Scheimflug Principle/Effect. In simple terms, you use a bellows on a camera, then you change the plane of the lens and plane of the film so that you can get everything in focus from the foreground to the distance perfectly in focus while using a large aperture. You can use this effect to distort or correct perspective errors to a certain aspect while avoiding defraction and chromatic aberration in any axis of the image, or accentuate it to taste. The larger the format of film or digital sensor you use, the better. It gives an entirely different look than you get from simple focus stacking, and you can get it in one shot. The only two cinematographers that I can think of that did this were Ford and Fritz Lang. Ansel Adams used this effect, but very subtly.
There's a phrase I've not heard for decades! Scheimflug Principle..
Thanks for sharing it with us
The movie guys also had some of the best "mat painters" in the business that made special effects well before computers.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Great video Alex. Funny story by Spielberg. I am a big fan of his work. Fascinating concept. I did this in some of my images without even knowing about it. Now, I have to go back and study what I did!!
Glad it helped you. Yes, I love stories like that.
Wait I’m normal? I adore your work. Great video.
Thanks for taking the time to be here..
Well, Mr. Ford, the corollary to the height of the horizon in the frame is the height of the camera. You can have a low horizon with a low or high camera point of view and get a totally different impression. The example images in the video work with this principle, too. And, if for perspective reasons, you want to keep your film/sensor frame perfectly vertical, and you do not have a shift camera/lens then this limits the degrees of freedom.
Thanks Alex, this was such a helpful lesson. Something for me to consider next time I'm out.
Glad it was helpful!
Brilliant!
Thank you
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching.
So how does this interface / interact with the apparent viewpoint? I.e., a high horizon with a high viewpoint (aerial, looking down), which makes things look small. Or a high horizon with a low viewpoint (worm's eye view, looking up) which makes things look large and impressive. Then there's a low horizon with a high viewpoint (aerial, looking level / up) which makes things even smaller or a low horizon with a low viewpoint (worm's eye view, looking level / down) which makes things look large but somewhat oppressive. Obviously there's a lot of overlap between all these scenarios but the viewer's apparently viewpoint is also a factor in the equation, IMO.
Very interesting discussion and techniques.
There are as you've said, a few other factors that can influence the ideas.
I'd love to get deeper into the ideas, but that makes the videos a little more dense. Seems like it's better fitted for a discussion.
You get a sense of scale when close up and it towers, but one also gets a sense of the scale of the landscape when it can make something seem small that is as large as Half Dome. Freight trains are huge, but there are photos of freight trains that look like models in the southwest USA landscape.
That's the weird thing about scale isn't it? It can be used in so many different ways
Kind of a weird thing, but I live only an hour from Yosemite. One time our company did a trip to Yosemite Valley. You'd perhaps be surprised how many people around here have never been despite it being such a short drive away.
There's a video here on RUclips that compares the directing style of Spielberg in the first Jurassic Park to the style of one of the sequels done by a different director. It was instructive. Another good one, although not about Spielberg, is called How David Fincher Hijacks your Eyes.
what's the name of the Spielberg video? I found one but I don't know if it's that one.
Thanks for sharing
What is the Horizon? Help me to understand it.
Where the land meets the sky. It's not always an obvious line, but it's there in every image.
I wonder what Ford would have thought about some of the work done by Sugimoto?
Hi Ian, he'd probably yell at him :D
@@ThePhotographicEye Meltdown lol.
I have taken the "horizon" out of many of my pictures digitally, and float the subject in space at angles to suggest weightlessness. Like the effect. Love to share some with you.
Interesting!
Only 914👍?
I don't care where one puts the horizon. One of my pete peeves is looking at a beautiful landscape, obviously great care in taking the photograph and editing, and the horizon is not level.
Where is the horizon out in the Universe?
When you get back home the horizon is waiting for you.
Then you gotta look for the Event Horizon
Right by the Oort cloud.
Great film!
Why is Steven wearing a Brown University baseball cap when he graduated from CSU Long Beach?
No idea.