Vertical -vs- Horizontal

Recently, I did a YouTube video about rotating your camera when you’re out shooting—that the best time to rotate your camera to a vertical/portrait orientation is right after you’ve shot a horizontal/landscape photograph and vice versa. It’s important to look at your scene from every camera angle.

Somebody asked me, why would she shoot her landscapes in portrait orientation. After all, horizontal is also referred to as landscape orientation for a reason! Well, I have a couple of reasons that I can think of for turning that camera!

First, you may want to switch the camera’s position if you have a subject that is vertical—perhaps a winding road going up through your picture, a waterfall, or a tall tree. It may just make more sense to have a vertical composition. You may be able to isolate the subject better and give it the proper attention it deserves by rotating the composition.

Another reason you may want to shoot your image vertically is because you have a strong foreground. If you’ve composed your image with a background, mid-ground and foreground element, it can guide your viewer’s eye through the image, and it may lend itself to being a vertical photograph.
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There are other reasons for considering a vertical composition, such as social media posts and selling your work for stock photography and magazines. So, don’t rule out rotating your camera when you go out to shoot a landscape photograph. If you are used to one orientation in your photography (no matter what genre) I encourage you to try something different and turn that camera!

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