You know that feeling when you're writing a prompt and thinking "I want it to look like it's shot from this angle..." but can't find the words to explain it? That frustration when you can picture it in your head but can't think of the English term.

When I first started, I didn't know how to describe "a shot looking down from above," so I just wrote something like "looking down from above" and got weird results. Turns out if you write "high angle" or "bird's eye view," the AI understands much better.

I came across this terminology guide compiled by Sinaida Cooper and thought "oh, so these are the words I needed!" so I translated it. Since these are based on cinematography terms, tools like Midjourney, Flux, and DALL-E recognize them well.

Grid showing 6 different camera angles of same female subject: eye level, high angle, low angle, dutch angle, overhead, and worm's eye view, labeled examples, cinematography reference style, clean white background

1. Camera Height (Vertical Position)

These terms determine where the camera sits on the Y-axis.

EnglishKoreanDescription
high angleํ•˜์ด ์•ต๊ธ€Looking down from above. Makes the subject appear smaller or weaker
low angle๋กœ์šฐ ์•ต๊ธ€Looking up from below. Makes the subject appear grand and dominant
eye level์•„์ด ๋ ˆ๋ฒจAt eye height. The most natural and neutral perspective
chest level์ฒด์ŠคํŠธ ๋ ˆ๋ฒจAt chest height. Slightly lower than eye level. Creates an intimate feel
ground level๊ทธ๋ผ์šด๋“œ ๋ ˆ๋ฒจAlmost touching the ground
worm's eye view์›œ์ฆˆ ์•„์ด ๋ทฐExtremely low perspective. Exaggerated sense of scale
overhead / top-down์˜ค๋ฒ„ํ—ค๋“œ / ํƒ‘๋‹ค์šดLooking down from directly above the subject at 90 degrees

From my experience, low angle works best. When you want to make a character look cool, adding this makes a real difference. Conversely, high angle is great for creating a cute or vulnerable feeling.

Comparison of same warrior character in three heights: high angle (looking small/vulnerable), eye level (neutral), low angle (heroic/powerful), dramatic lighting, labeled cinematography demonstration