Figure appears at bottom of page despite [H] option

Question

I start a new section on a new page and want to show an image first. I use the figure-environment because it needs a caption, and the [H] option because otherweise Latex places it god knows where.

Yet, the graphic appears at the bottom of the page, not immediately after the header of the section. How to prevent this?

\subsection{Gefaltetes Netz(cnn)}
\begin{figure}[H]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{pictures/nets/cnn.eps}
    \caption{Netzmodell: Gefaltetes Netz}
    \label{net:cnn}
\end{figure}

Answer 1

you have not provided any code to reproduce the problem but [H] means the figure will not move it will be positioned exactly as a letter or box at that position will be positioned.

Presumably you have \flushbottom in effect and the only stretch space on that page is after the section head so it has to stretch that space to put ensure that there is no space at the bottom of the page.

So you could use \raggedbottom or note the reason that latex floats figures is to avoid getting ugly white space at page breaks so by using [H] and disabling floats you shoudl expect to get bad space unless you make manual corrections, for example arranging the following text that you did not show so that it fits on to that page under the figure.

Answer 2

Without more information about the document class and the packages used I think that the issue can be fixed by replacing \begin{figure}[H] by \begin{figure}[h] .

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\subsection{Gefaltetes Netz(cnn)}
\begin{figure}[h]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{pictures/nets/cnn.eps}
    \caption{Netzmodell: Gefaltetes Netz}
    \label{net:cnn}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

As sugested by @David Carlisle here is the same code in which I have replaced \begion{figure}[h] by \begin{figure}[H].

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\subsection{Gefaltetes Netz(cnn)}
\begin{figure}[h]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{pictures/nets/cnn.eps}
    \caption{Netzmodell: Gefaltetes Netz}
    \label{net:cnn}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

the output is totally different

---

\documentclass[]{book}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{float}

\begin{document}
\subsection{Gefaltetes Netz(cnn)}
\begin{figure}[H]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{example-image}
    \caption{Netzmodell: Gefaltetes Netz}
    \label{net:cnn}
\end{figure}

\section{Zzzz}

    \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth, height=.7\textheight]{example-image-b}
\end{document}