IN THE FIELD: A Different Perspective

What’s the most natural way to hold the camera when taking photos? Many folks would agree it’s in the horizontal format. Probably 90 percent of the shots we all take are in the horizontal format. There is nothing wrong with shooting this way, after all, it’s how we see naturally.

Although, there is another way to hold the camera when taking photos, and that’s in the vertical format. In many cases, a composition will work better as a vertical as compared to a horizontal format. Just by changing from one view to the other, the dynamics of a photo can be subtle or significant.

Sure, you can crop a horizontal image and make it a vertical, and sometimes that’s the only option, especially if you didn’t take a vertical shot. But, by cropping, you can only capture a portion of the original image.

When should you take a vertical shot? In my opinion, right after taking a horizontal shot.

Try it and see what a different perspective will do for your photographs.

Neither of these two photos have been cropped. They are straight out of the camera to illustrate the difference between a horizontal and vertical composition.

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