Photography: Choose The Right Orientation

A composition technique that many ignore when composing images

This article talks explains different image orientations available, explains which orientation of the image suites best for specific subjects and challenges you to break the rules.

Introduction
Which orientation do you prefer?
Horizontal (wide / landscape) orientation
Vertical (tall / portrait) orientation
Square orientation
Break the rules
Shooting for a specific usage
Conclusion

Introduction

Do you ever think what orientation suits best for the subject you are trying to capture or do you just press the shutter release button and try your luck?

Orientation can greatly affect how and what image is presenting.

Most novices shoot everything horizontally – well it is much easier to hold and shoot in horizontal mode - especially the compact cameras, no?

Here are some quick guidelines how it is best to emphasize different subjects.

Which orientation do you prefer?

Let’s first look at some examples.

Do the images feel the same to you regardless of the orientation? Which one do you prefer?

Which orientation would you choose always comes down to one question:

What are you trying to emphasize?

Horizontal (wide / landscape) orientation

Whenever you are shooting landscapes, seascapes, pets or group portraits, the best choice is to use the horizontal orientation.

Anything with strong horizontal lines looks best in horizontal position.

Landscape images have strong horizontal lines.

Vertical (tall / portrait) orientation

Whenever you have strong vertical lines (read anything tall), like buildings, trees, people; or when you are shooting portraits and statues, the vertical orientation looks best.

Portraits usually look best in portrait (vertical) orientation.

Whenever you want to emphasize the height, use vertical orientation, like with this tree..

..or this corridor.

Square orientation

Often overlooked, but it still is there to use. Unfortunately, the only way to achieve such orientation is by cropping the edges into a perfect square.

This kind of orientation doesn’t suite most of the compositions due to its static feel, but you can use it well when shooting circular objects or when both horizontal and vertical lines are equally important.

What do you like better?

Break the rules

I have said above that the statues are best portrayed with a vertical orientation because they are usually drawing a strong vertical line:

That is true.

But let’s play a bit!

If you looked closer, the above left image isn’t completely false, it you just needs a bit of cropping applied:

Now we have a square orientated image with a subject of a statue! Yuppie!

This image works because the rule of thirds has been applied: the statue is positioned on the left side, looking at the tree.

And why the square orientation?

It was possible to use the square orientation here because the statue is drawing a long vertical line, while the cloud at the bottom is drawing a long horizontal line.

Shooting for a specific usage

Whenever you know you are using images for example a calendar or a slide show you will want to use horizontal orientation on purpose (because of the format of the paper).

If you are shooting for a magazine on the other hand, the orientation would be vertical.

Conclusion

Lines are the most powerful composition tool, so it is not surprising they effect which image orientation is best to choose as well.

Therefore whenever you are not sure which orientation to choose, look at the scene and ask yourself: Where are the lines going?

If you are still not sure what orientation suits your subject, take two images – one in horizontal and one in vertical orientation and see which one works the best (check it on the LCD screen). After that you can take another shot with improved composition if necessary.

I used to learn it this way. Sometimes I still do it on purpose. Trying different orientations and different compositions and then later analyzing the image and seeing how it could be improved. And then next time doing it right. : )

I hope I have illustrated well the point I was trying to make:

Orientation influences what is emphasized on the image (according to the lines they draw).
Some subjects just look better in certain orientation (but that is not a rule – try to break it).
If you changed the orientation of the image, you will also have to change how the image is composed (where and how much of something is on the image).