Landscape photography tip: also take vertical landscape photos

Thursday 17 December 2020, 23:32 by Nando Harmsen | 5,487 views | 3 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

You know the terms landscape orientation and portrait orientation. They refer to the orientation of the photo, horizontal or vertical. The names also indicate what they are most commonly used for. But why not use portrait orientation more often for your landscapes? It can have many advantages.

It makes sense to hold your camera in the horizontal position for a landscape photo. This gives you as much of the scene from left to right as possible. However, this is not always the best choice. In some cases, it works better to keep your photo in the vertical orientation. Perhaps more often than you think.

A horizontally oriented photo gives you a lot of space from left to right. It can create a sense of vastness, but it can also be a disadvantage if you have a clear subject in your photo.

There is a risk that you will have a lot of empty space on both sides, which does not contribute to the photo and falls outside a clear composition.

If you like to include a foreground, you also have little space in the vertical direction to create a pleasing division between the foreground and the background. The two objects, foreground and background, end up very close together.

A horizontal photo does not offer much added value. So why not use a vertical orientation, as with the crop in this example?
By photographing your photo vertically, you have a chance to solve both 'problems'. First, you ensure that all that empty space next to your subject disappears, and secondly, you make optimal use of the possibilities for dividing the frame through the space created in the vertical direction.

Do you feel that your photo looks narrow in vertical orientation? That could be right. Because of the 3:2 format of most sensors, a photo is 30 per cent longer than it is wide.

This only really stands out in vertical orientation. Try to prevent this by cropping your photo to a 4:5 format. This is the same format used by medium-format cameras.

Do you find the vertical crop too narrow and long? Consider a 4:5 crop, as used by medium-format cameras.
A photographer with a micro four-thirds camera will be less bothered by this 'narrow' feeling in a vertical photo. Its ratio is already closer to 4:5. Just give it a try and see whether it works well for you.

The Landscape Bible, with 101 tips for beautiful landscape photos

This tip is part of the book The Landscape Bible, in which I share 101 tips for beautiful landscape photos. The book, full of beautiful photos, gives you all the information you need to start taking your own fantastic landscape photos.


Don't have The Landscape Bible yet? Order it via the order page and buy the book separately, or at an attractive discount in combination with a membership of Photofacts Academy.

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