camera poition

[sumo67]

when shooting a portrait of a single person is it better to hold camera in the natural normal position or should you hold it on its side??

do you fill up more of the photo holding on its side??

[OsmosisStudios]

Depends

It depends on how you want it framed, the person's pose, the background elements, your lighting, etc. I often try both orientations for each pose, just to give me the variety

[Sterling]

Turning the camera on its side isn't called portrait orientation for nothing.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by Sterling

Turning the camera on its side isn't called portrait orientation for nothing.

yup..

you'll fit more in if you turn it on its side in to "Portrait Orientation"

the frame will be tall and narrow.. just like a persons head..


but dont use that as a rule... do as Osmosis said.. try both..
often it depends what you're trying to achieve. infact.. my current FB profile pic is landscape.. and its a headshot too.

[Benji]

If you do shoot both ways watch your cropping at the bottom of the image and don't crop in too tightly. It is a lot easier to crop off a little bit more later on than it is to attempt to add what isn't there back on to the bottom.

Benji

[kelleyrie]

I do both. I quite like landscape orientation for a portrait, even though I know it's not the "way" it's done

[autofocus]

...that's the beauty of the crop tool in PS. Shoot it as a landscape and get a whole new look by cropping to portrait mode in PP'ing...or vice versa. If your original shot warrants, and the focus is good, you can often get several crops out of the original. Have fun playing!

Vince