Horizontal vs Vertical Orientation (10 Tips to Use Landscape or Portrait Frame)

Today we are going to find out what can work best for your photos – A Horizontal or Landscape Orientation, or a Vertical or Portrait Orientation. So first what are these terms?

Landscape orientation refers to horizontal subjects or a canvas wider than it is tall. Portrait format refers to a vertical orientation or a canvas taller than it is wide. Landscape usually involves subjects that are too wide to shoot with a portrait orientation, and so, you have to turn the camera sideways, and shoot horizontally. Portrait shots are vertically oriented, and as the name suggests, that’s the favored mode for shooting portraits. But of course there are no rules.

Now I am going to give you a few tips on which orientation works best for which photos.

1. Lines

With portrait format, the vertical lines are more prominent. If the scene has a lot of vertical lines, you can either shoot in portrait format to make them appear never ending. On the other hand, when there are a lot of horizontal lines in the scene, it gives a feeling of balance and security in the image. So it is better to go horizontal.

2. Fill Your Frame

You usually want to fit the entire subject into the frame, and you want to do it in a visually interesting way. That means you have to make choices about what to include and what to exclude. Once you’ve made that choice, you can determine whether it would be better to shoot in portrait or landscape format.

3. Background

You’ll want to consider what’s in the background, and how much of that do you want to include in the image. If you find there is a distraction in the scene, which you can avoid by changing your orientation, there is no harm in changing your preference.

4. Sense of Space

Horizontal images can be used to suggest a sense of largeness in landscapes. They make you feel like there’s room to breathe. The same image shot in portrait mode can accentuate vertical subjects, making them seem more regal.

5. Difference in Distance

When you’re shooting a photograph in portrait format, the viewer feels closer to the subject because it fills up more of the frame. On the other hand, shooting in landscape format gives the viewer the feeling of greater distance. The main subject seems further away because less of it fills the frame.

6. Difference in Focus

Fill the frame with your subject, and give it a vertical orientation to make your subject look tall and imposing. The focus is completely on the subject. On the other hand, if you include more background and provide more space in the image, and shoot in landscape format, suddenly the main subject becomes one piece of a larger puzzle.

7. Dimensions

One big difference between portrait mode and landscape mode is the dimensions of the images. You might have a certain thing in mind stylistically, but your client might be taking the images for a specific purpose, and they might have strict dimension requirements. E.g. if you are taking images for a magazine cover, it makes more sense to go for a portrait orientation.

8. Context Differences

Because you see more of the background with landscape mode, it provides a greater context for the subject in the image. That gives the viewer more information whereas shooting in portrait mode removes context, making the subject more mysterious.

9. Change in Post-processing

If you feel you have extra space in your landscape photos or they have some distraction, you can always crop them in your post processing software. Similarly you can crop your vertical photos to a horizontal or even a square size.

10. Shoot in Both

The best practice according to me is to click your photos in both horizontal and vertical orientation. Because you don’t know when and where they may be used. Different platforms have different rules, like for Instagram, vertical photos are better, but for a YouTube video, we may want to click in landscape to place our images in the video effectively.