Concept
Camera tilt — where it appears
2 essays name this object, across one field. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
One, two and three point are one construction
The names count how many vanishing points sit at a finite place in the picture, and the count is a fact about how the object is turned and the camera is aimed. Nothing about the method changes between them, and a vanishing point does not appear — it arrives from infinity.
The horizon is at eye level — if the picture plane is vertical
The horizon cuts every standing figure at the same fraction of its height however far away it is, which is the most immediately usable fact in the subject. It holds when the camera is level, and a twelve-degree tilt is enough to spread the fractions by more than a percentage point.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
HorizonPicture planeVanishing pointAffine mapEye levelone-point perspectivethree-point perspectivetwo-point perspective