In this blog we are looking at when and why you should consider shooting vertical landscape photos, rather than the usual horizontal orientation.
Isn't the answer obvious?
The first thing I thought when I considered writing this article was "aren't the reasons when and why you shoot vertical obvious?" but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that whilst some of the reasons might be obvious, others were not, and so it was a topic worth covering.
When shooting landscapes, we normally shoot horizontally by default. There are a number of reasons for this;
- Because of the way our vision works, we are essentially used to seeing the world in horizontal mode
- The obvious way to hold a camera is horizontally
- The clue is in the name; we are used to seeing landscapes in landscape (horizontal) orientation
So what are the reasons to shoot vertically?
There are a number of reasons to think about turning your camera and shooting vertically:
1. Tall subjects: The most obvious reason is when you have a tall subject, such as a lighthouse or a waterfall in a gorge as the main subject in your landscape. If you are close to it, going vertical with your image might be the only way to fit it all in the frame and give it enough space not to feel cramped in the image.
2. Balancing composition: Again with vertically oriented subjects (such as a tall waterfall or a tree reflected in a lake), even though it might be possible to fit it all in using a horizontal orientation, it still might not be desirable as it might lead to an unbalanced photo. Consider a tall waterfall in a gorge; although by going wide angle it might be possible to fit it all in a horizontal shot, doing so will include a lot of the sides of the gorge on either side of the image. This is likely to mean that the amount of image taken up by the sides of the gorge swamps the main subject (the waterfall) making the main elements in the photo feel unbalanced. By switching to vertical orientation, it would be easier to make the waterfall more visually dominant and reduce the amount of gorge side in the photo, making it feel more balanced.
3. Leading lines: A less obvious reason is if you have identified a strong lead-in line into your composition (such as a path, fence-line or winding road). It might be that you can strengthen the composition by emphasising the lead-in line using a vertical composition.
4. Where are you going to use the image?: Another less obvious reason to consider going vertical, is where you are planning to use the image. Some social media platforms like Facebook work best with landscape orientation images, whereas others such as Instagram work far better with vertical orientation (or square) images. Although sometimes a horizontal orientation image can be cropped successfully to a vertical or square one, on some images this simply ruins the image (e.g. by losing essential parts of the composition off the edges of the image). As I post my images on multiple social media platforms, I tend to generally start by taking horizontal images, but then switch to vertical to see if i can produce a new composition which works in that format. Another reason that I do this (although probably not applicable to most of you) is that magazines generally require vertical orientation images (think of the shape of the front of a magazine and you'll see why!)
5. When the sky dominates: When the sky is a dominant part of the scene (such as shots of the Milky Way or the aurora) it can help to produce more balanced compositions by switching to vertical. With such an amazing sky, you want to include lots of it in your shot, but if this is at the exclusion of foreground interest it can produce an uninteresting image. Switching to vertical orientation means that you can include plenty of sky AND plenty of foreground interest, potentially leading to a much stronger composition.
Pro tip: How to quickly switch between horizontal & vertical orientations
If you're shooting handheld, switching between horizontal and vertical orientations is obviously easy. However, if you are shooting in low light and using a tripod then it becomes more of a challenge. If you are using a tripod with a ball head, these generally have a slot which allows you to flip to vertical orientation, but this is often a bit restrictive. The best way to allow you to quickly switch between horizontal and vertical is to attach an 'L bracket' to your camera. These but allow you to easily attach your camera horizontally and vertically by simply attaching either the bottom or the side of your camera to the tripod.
L-brackets are camera specific, and also need to be the right fixing type to attach to your tripod; it's usually best if you try and make sure everything conforms to the Arca Swiss standard, so you know that everything is compatible.
In the image below, you can see how the orange L-Bracket (this one by Three Legged Thing) fixes to the camera and allows you to quickly change orientation; important if the light in your scene is changing quickly and you don't want to miss anything!
Want to improve your photography skills?
Don't forget that if you want some direct help with your photography, I offer a range of 1-2-1 photography courses for Devon based folks. If you're not nearby then I also offer residential workshops for beginner photographers or improving photographers.
About me
I first got into photography after walking the beautiful South West Coast Path: I was so disappointed that my photos didn't do justice to the beautiful coastal scenery that I decided to walk all 630 miles all over again, but this time to also teach myself photography along the way!
A few years later and I find myself as a professional photographer, widely published and with landscape photos which have won national awards. But I do much more than landscapes, providing photography training to businesses & individuals on how to take beautiful photographs, and providing professional photography services to businesses across the South West. My commercial specialisms are property photography, business photography, people photography & aerial (drone) photography.
I’m also an author with a number of published books and I give regular talks about my passion for photography, and for Devon, to camera clubs and other groups.
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