Is Portrait Formatting always best for Portraits?
There are two main ways of holding a camera when taking an image - vertically or horizontally. These two modes are also often referred to as ‘portrait’ and ‘landscape’ formats.
These names give some indication of how people traditionally have formated portraits and landscapes - but is a vertical (or portrait) framing always best for portraits?
Today I’m going to suggest that you explore mixing it up - as part of our breaking the rules of photography series.
Faces and bodies are generally pretty elongated objects and so a vertical (portrait) framing can be quite well suited to them - however using a horizontal framing can also lead to some visually interesting shots also.
I particularly like a couple of horizontal framings when it comes to portraits:
Tightly Cropped Faces - Try zooming right in on the face of your subject in horizontal mode. In doing so you’ll probably find that you lose a little of their chin and perhaps some forehead - but it will give you a shot with a strong presence with the eyes prominently placed. You’ll also find that it leaves little room in your images for distracting backgrounds.
Head and Shoulders - One of the most effective ways of using horizontal framings in informal portraits is when you want to place your subject off center with a nice out of focus background behind them. While you can do this in a vertical formatted shot there is less room to play with.
There’s something about a horizontally formatted portrait that says ‘informality’ to me. Conversely - the vertically formatted shot can come across as a little more formal or ‘posed’. Of course there’s nothing wrong with either formal or informal portraits - but it’s worth doing some experimentation next time you’re photographing people.
Which format do you use most in your portrait photography? Experiment with some different framings next time and see what impact it might have.
This post has been updated - it was previously posted in January 2007
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You can think of landscape formatting for portraits as the only way to frame in movies. So, if you want some ideas, go see any movie made in the last 80 years!
Great tips, Ill be sure to keep them in mind.
On a side note, how did bikeracer get those images to be so vibrant? Is that the blurring filter you mentioned a few articles back?
@Mike bikeracer has explained his Technique in the Technique group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/technique/discuss/72157594364118508/
Thank you…good article!
I like to use landscape formatting for portaits…zooming in on the face…focusing on the best feature…usually the eyes or an interesting smile. This is a very good way to capture their essence in black and white.
great article and some amazing examples too!
Hey, thanks for the mention / use of my photos. I noticed a little bump in activity on them and had to go looking for the reason. Nice article too. =]
Julián’s remarks about movies reminds me to allways keep in mind what the photo is being used for - which can help your decision concerning landscape or portrait.
Interesting ideas, I’m doing an assignment on portrait photography for college, so very timely for me. Thanks!
How do you soften the photos like bikeracer did?
never mind
To Dan: to blur your background you use smaller aperture like 2.8 or even 1.8, focusing only the face!
I like to experiment with portrait`s frames and I like the horizontal way too :) Nice tip! but only for the framing!
Do you think of more photographs as examples?
Biliana
portrait can be made with both way ( landscape and vertical) but it will look good only when you apply rule of thirds or golden rule.
Thiru-SriLanka
Ver nice article and very nice pics as well.
I love your website. I will try your tip on dark tops for photographs. I typically like florals, polka dots, etc. for black and white photos. My favorite thing to do is photography my toddler in oversized hats. I can email you a photo if you’d like.
I prefer the horizontal format for most images especially portraits. I do very much like the cinematic feel of movies and taking portraits in the “landscape” format are closer to that respect. A lot of my composition choices for portraits are made by imagining if it was a movie.
I really like these images. Thx for the tips! Can you share what effects you use to get this look? Love it.
Hi.. How to make the background out of focus, while focusing on any foregrounf objects?
vasanth - check out this tutorial on depth of field
You forget to mention the square format! These are neither portrait or landscape. If anyone has any good square pics that resemple emoticons, they should submit them to this contest Norton is doing. I work with them, so I’m ineligible for the $10,000 prize. Here’s the link http://www.norton.com/photocontest
Good luck!
Nice advice, but I believe in a portrait the eyes plays a major role. The shine and color of the eyes can out shadow the rest of the face. Another thig to condsider is the texture of the skin. The skin is not always presumed to be smooth sometime some oil and blemishes add mood to the picture.
I recently found an article dealing with this and other portrait photography issues at
http://www.illustratedphotography.com/photography-tips/top-tips/environmental-portrait
Hope that helps too.