Why is portrait orientation

Depending on your scene, adjusting your composition in accordance with the rule of thirds might require one mode or the other. But, these are not hard and fast rules. There are times when you might want to focus on a part of a scene that is wider than it is tall. For example, if there are multiple tall features in a wide landscape scene, you might want to focus on a single feature and shoot it in portrait mode. Likewise, not all portraits are shot in portrait mode. In the end, photography is about making choices, and you have to decide both stylistically and practically what will work for you.

That means taking into consideration your subject, the scene, and the mood you want to create. Do you want to emphasize the subject or put it into context? Are you looking to use space to create a sense of grandeur? Do the leading lines pull your eyes up into infinity? Is your subject imposing, almost regal? Take the photos with your camera in both orientations, and see what works best. You can also minimize the influence of the background by, for example, blurring the background.

That also emphasizes your subject, and this is usually the goal of portrait photography. This is why there are no hard and fast rules for when to use which orientation.

Some photographers advocate for leaving your camera set in landscape mode because you can always crop the photo to bring more focus to your main subject.

Another time when this works well is when you want to get an image of a tightly cropped face. Did you learn anything? To keep quality high, we work together with the best photographers in the world.

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Photography Course. This is particularly useful in genres of photography like environmental portraiture, where the setting of the photograph is as important as the subject. Because of the dimensions of aircraft, aviation photography is often carried out in a landscape orientation.

A portrait orientation exaggerates the upright extension of subjects in a photograph. But a portrait orientation also speaks to our associations with tall subjects, emphasizing a sense of independence, wonder, modernity, and even superiority or unease. In contrast, a landscape orientation places extra emphasis on space, illustrating ease and immersion.

In the simple example below you can see the different emphasis being placed on the floral silhouettes. The portrait example emphasizes the energetic, upright quality of the flower. The landscape orientation creates a more relaxed perspective. Every photographic situation is different and sometimes an element in a potential image is less than ideal. If there are elements present within a photo that you would rather omit, switching camera orientations might help achieve a more polished image, either in-camera or in post-processing.

Cropping out excess information with a portrait orientation will simplify an image and minimize distractions. Switching from a portrait to landscape orientation will decrease image height, prioritizing the horizontal flow in a photograph instead. Over time, our historic use of image orientation has associated specific visual qualities with both portrait and landscape formats. To capture as much of the best parts of the scene as possible, you want to hold your camera in landscape orientation.

This way, you capture less of the sky and foreground above and below the mountain range. This approach makes the mountains the most prominent element in the image and achieves a nice balance to the composition. It all depends on the intended purpose of the image and how you want to compose it. The decision to shoot in portrait or landscape should be the first basic rule of composition to think of when taking photos. The same applies to video. Some subjects that you photograph will sit better within a composition that uses portrait format.

Others will look better when captured in landscape mode. The subject will appear to be compressed — the flow of the image will be interrupted by excess space to each side of the subject. Or, when photographing a broad, wide subject in portrait, it will feel like the subject is trying to bulge out the sides of the composition. Portrait photography means holding your camera so that both it and the image are taller than they are wider.

The genres of photography that commonly use portrait orientation are very simple to remember. The first and most obvious one is portraiture photography. While you can shoot portraits in landscape orientation, and many photographers do, the composition balance can feel off.

To overcome this, you might compose your image so that the subjects face is off-centre and looking towards the empty portion of the composition. Portrait photography is not the only genre to use this orientation. When you want to capture a full-body image, such as in fashion photography or couples-portraits, you will use the portrait format.

This might be in a landscape setting where you have a large rocky outcrop or in architecture with a tall building. Getting in a little closer to a tall subject can also result in a very dynamic feel to the image — as though the subject is towering over you. Just as the name suggests, the most common use for landscape orientation is with landscape photography.

The prime reason for this is that a landscape setting is usually vast and expansive. Lakes, mountain ranges and interesting skies expand across the scene. To capture as much of this as possible and create a dramatic and exciting image, you would use landscape orientation. It all depends on how you want to best represent the horizontal and vertical elements in the scene. Other photography genres that use landscape include street photography , event photography and group shots.