Most photographers seem to default to the horizontal viewpoint. Even for landscapes, where horizontal is the normal reaction to achieve a panoramic effect, vertical images can be just as effective, particularly where close-ups of trees or other tall objects are involved. Another way to express it is landscape versus portrait. An alternative is also the square image, neither wider nor taller, but all sides being equal. We tend to default to horizontal (landscape) because that is how we view the world: our eyes are horizontal, not vertical. Computer monitors and films are set in horizontal mode. Vertical requires us as well to turn the camera and is better for capturing tall objects without extraneous space on the sides, and more detail of the tall object.
Those basics aside, and without running down the millions of hits you get if you run horizontal versus vertical photographs through a search engine, perhaps we can just do our own captures and see what we think about them.
Here are two from Vilnius, Lithuania, where I wanted to capture the locks that people place on bridges as signs of their love for each other. I shot it twice on this bridge, one horizontal, the other vertical, with different locks in the image.
Those basics aside, and without running down the millions of hits you get if you run horizontal versus vertical photographs through a search engine, perhaps we can just do our own captures and see what we think about them.
Here are two from Vilnius, Lithuania, where I wanted to capture the locks that people place on bridges as signs of their love for each other. I shot it twice on this bridge, one horizontal, the other vertical, with different locks in the image.
A few points. I could have stood back more and included more of the bridge on the horizontal image, but that would have rendered the actual locks smaller. Or if I had been closer to the bridge to get that detail, I would have lost some of the background. I felt the setting was as important as simply focusing on the locks. More to the point, the horizontal image allowed more locks to show, adding not only variety but showing how many were on the bridge, even in this limited space.
On the other hand, the vertical has fewer locks but, in this case, I was able to feature three locks up close. If I had done that as a horizontal, I’d have lost the background. Here, I was able to keep the background. As it happens, I have no strong feeling one way or the other as to which is the better or stronger image. If I had to choose, I would pick the vertical, perhaps because it balances a high level of detail of the locks, which was important, with sufficient background to establish setting.
Why is the background important? We like to think of the subject in terms of the simpler, the better, but here the locks stand in place of the people who put them there, and through the locks we see what the couples saw as they placed the locks. To that extent, the background and setting are equally part of the story.
Too many times we see something interesting and just take one shot. We are told to move around and look for other angles. We need to remember that it is worth taking it from the vertical as well as the horizontal perspective and having the option later. Sometimes we can accomplish that by cropping but that can lose too much of the image. Get the full image at the time, both ways.
On the other hand, the vertical has fewer locks but, in this case, I was able to feature three locks up close. If I had done that as a horizontal, I’d have lost the background. Here, I was able to keep the background. As it happens, I have no strong feeling one way or the other as to which is the better or stronger image. If I had to choose, I would pick the vertical, perhaps because it balances a high level of detail of the locks, which was important, with sufficient background to establish setting.
Why is the background important? We like to think of the subject in terms of the simpler, the better, but here the locks stand in place of the people who put them there, and through the locks we see what the couples saw as they placed the locks. To that extent, the background and setting are equally part of the story.
Too many times we see something interesting and just take one shot. We are told to move around and look for other angles. We need to remember that it is worth taking it from the vertical as well as the horizontal perspective and having the option later. Sometimes we can accomplish that by cropping but that can lose too much of the image. Get the full image at the time, both ways.