Man fishing at Leyu Lake, Taiwan.
Give somebody a camera for the first time and chances are they’ll hold it in a horizontal fashion. This landscape orientation is natural and easy for beginners to pick up, it matches the format we’re used to seeing when we look at photographs on computer screens, or when we watch TV or go to the movies. There are different ratios used for different things (for example 3:2 for 35mm), but in general, we’re comfortable with looking at photos where the horizontal is longer than the vertical. It feels natural.
A gallery from the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Pingxi, Taiwan is now online.
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It’s also easier. If you take your basic DSLR camera, it’s much simpler and more comfortable to hold it in the horizontal format. It’s just not very convenient to hold a camera vertically. There are various accessories available that make it somewhat easier but most people don’t use them.
Look at any magazine or book however and you’ll notice that the vertical edge is longer than the horizontal. It’s a little less natural as the human eye generally prefers looking across an image rather than up and down but with the right subject it works well. Subjects will often be placed in the lower half of the frame, where the bottom edge of the frame acts as a base.
Man fishing at Leyu Lake, Taiwan.
It’s worth taking some extra time to shoot both horizontal and vertical images (aka landscape orientation and portrait orientation). If you license your photos for editorial usage (or plan to in the future), this will give you extra options for license fees and revenue. The same general image shot in two different orientations can often tell two different stories, making your overall photography that much stronger.
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