Tall or Long?

[Ed Rooney]

I'm going to sound totally ignorant asking this (and I'm only mostly ignorant), but . . .

 

1. Do you shoot more horizontals or verticals?

 

2. Why?

 

 

[John Mitchell]

I try to shoot a mixture of horizontals and verticals of the same subject if it lends itself to both formats. Why? Having both formats opens up more usage possibilities. Also, verticals tend to be more popular for covers of books and magazines, so it's good to have them available.

[Flintstone]

Have not been shooting long but I prefer horizontals. Why, I don't know. 

 

Best I can come up with is the fact that my eyes are situated horizontally across my face therefore I see the world from a horizontal perspective. Daft, but if I lean my head 90 degrees to the side, I see a lot of ground and sky. My forehead and nose are restricting my view to the sides where there is a lot of things that I am not seeing.

 

Put me on a narrow path with high hedgerows either side as blinkers, inside a maze say, and I would go vertical. I guess that when my eyes cannot find anything interesting to the East and West, they go looking to the North and South!

 

Got to be one of the most daft repies I have written or read!!   No sarcasm in this reply either Ed.

 

I will wait for others to reply then you may see this post disappear

[ann]

I upload about 70% horizontal & 30% vertical + square  --  license:  2/3 horizontal & 1/3 vertical.

In 'default' position, my camera and my eyes view horizontally.

Horizontals: groups of people;  buildings & vehicles, street scenes & scenics; interiors, person working on something....
Verticals: focus on person basically standing, speaking; capturing all of something tall.....

 

How about you, Ed?

 

- Ann

[Paul Thompson]

Both but started cropping a few as square as you get a larger thumbnail

[JohnB]

I'm sure the thinking was that newspapers prefer vertical but looking through recently  there seems to be a tendency toward horizontal. Well yesterday's Times seems to be more horizontal or nearly square crops than vertical.

[Bryan]

My current cameras come naturally to the eye with a horizontal format, with the controls conveniently to hand, but I do try to take vertical format shots as well. A quick check on my UK stuff here shows the split to be about 60/40.

 

Us follically challenged elder male persons need to wear a hat, and it tends to get in the way when shooting vertically.

 

Front covers are more naturally going to suit vertical format, but those I seek in vain 

[davelich]

Shoot both formats but definitely lean towards vertical. Maybe influenced by the fact that I use a grip, which makes it a lot easier. The use of vertical images for book/magazine covers is also an important factor, for me anyway.

[Robert M Estall]

The way almost all cameras fall into the hand, horizontals are the natural default. The only exception I ever had was a neat compact Fuji 4.5 x 6 cm wide angle film camera. Architectural work almost always works best as vertical as do portraits (pet people plant etc). If you want to squeeze the maximum revenue out of a shoot, ring out the changes. If you are insisting on offering your personal presentation, that's a reasonable stance as well.

[Bizair]

 

Both, but more horizontal than vertical in my portfolio at the moment.

 

However, I'm more and more inclined to crop to square when the subject suits. Even to the extent, when in the studio on live view, marking my screen to a square format for still life. A square format has an advantage in a larger thumbnail. And it gives the buyer more options. But only if enough copy space is left available for the buyer to crop to whatever layout they need.

 

So I guess there is no clear cut answer. Whatever you think appropriate for your image is the closest I can come.

 

Ken

[Richard Coombs]

The majority of my shots are vertical, although I do both where appropriate. In terms of sales over the years, I would say there has been a pretty equal split.

[spacecadet]

Hasselblad formerly.

Collection, about 2:1 landscape.

Sales, mostly web uses, 5:1. That says it all, really. I'd never checked before today.

[Niels Quist]

I thought the title was referring to the old joke about the two so-called idiots who should measure the height of a flagpole. (Difficulties climbing up with the measuring tape, the passing psychiatrist suggested to disconnect the flagpole and measure the pole while on the ground - and the obvious reply was, "We want to know how tall it is, not how long it is, you idiot"). - But it wasn't, I take it....

About a quarter of my photos are tall, I think. But many of the horizontals can be cropped for book covers, etc. Have seen this more than once.

[Allan Bell]

I try to shoot a mixture of horizontals and verticals of the same subject if it lends itself to both formats. Why? Having both formats opens up more usage possibilities. Also, verticals tend to be more popular for covers of books and magazines, so it's good to have them available.

 

+1 +square sometimes.

 

Allan

[Alex Todd]

 

 

 

 

I try to shoot a mixture of horizontals and verticals of the same subject if it lends itself to both formats. Why? Having both formats opens up more usage possibilities. Also, verticals tend to be more popular for covers of books and magazines, so it's good to have them available.

 

+1 +square sometimes.

 

Allan

+1

 

I once missed a sale due to only taking a vertical of a politician buying a couple of books. He agreed to pose for a quick shot or two so I only did them vertical. Next day The Times called to ask if I had any horizontals, answer was no so I didn't make the sale.

 

Different types of newspapers use different layouts so it's best to have both optiones available.

[John Gaffen]

Sometimes I shoot and submit subjects in both orientations, if  they are suitable for this treatment.  Landscapes are almost always horizontals, except if I am planning to stich them together for a panorama, as it is useful for giving more height to play with. I find that some subjects naturally suit vertical and some suit  horizontal.  

[CandyAppleRed Images]

Couldn't say what my overall totals are, but verticals account for about 20% of sales. I would be surprised if I only have 20% verticals in there, but hard to tell from the thumbnails.

[Ed Rooney]

I upload about 70% horizontal & 30% vertical + square  --  license:  2/3 horizontal & 1/3 vertical.

 

In 'default' position, my camera and my eyes view horizontally.

 

Horizontals: groups of people;  buildings & vehicles, street scenes & scenics; interiors, person working on something....

Verticals: focus on person basically standing, speaking; capturing all of something tall.....

 

How about you, Ed?

 

- Ann

 

I'm in step with you, Ann, and most people here have pointed toward horizontals. When I look at my sales, less than 20% are verticals (but that could be partly due to the fact that I shoot more horizontals. Back in the day, when magazines were king, vertical full-page images were more important---more important than they are now I mean. Horizontals, to me, have always had a more pleasing, artistic look to them. 

 

By the way, I wear a baseball cap much of the time, and so I trip the shutter with my thumb so I don't need to reach up with my arm above my head. This way of working also makes me less visible to my subjects.

 

The great Richard Avedon did much of his work with a Rolli twin-lens camera, a square format. But that was in the studio. For those of us who work mostly outside, a rectangle is more useful. 

 

If I sound as if I'm preaching, I'm not. I posted to get other points of view . . . but I do have my own point of view, of course. 

[Bryan]

By the way, I wear a baseball cap much of the time, and so I trip the shutter with my thumb so I don't need to reach up with my arm above my head. This way of working also makes me less visible to my subjects.

 

The obvious answer, but not one that had come to my mind!  Doh...

 

Thanks Ed.

[David Kilpatrick]

Web and on-line edition sales count a lot today. Very few web sales are verticals as they just take too much space, or prevent text from being visible when a page opens. Same for email marketing shots - horizontals rule. Check any coupon, offer page, Achica, Groupon, travel deals from anyone - all use horizontal images.

 

For publications, the reverse applies. Half-page wide horizontals are 1/8th page and can just be too small, where half-page wide verticals are a 1/4 page and one image on a page can be enough to balance the written content; and they also make covers and full pages. Using horizontals big in print is tricky, too many photographers put the subject dead bang centre ruling out any chance of a DPS (though there are plenty of very thoughtless editors, who happily position faces on/in the gutter - I had a well-designed magazine once, which passed to another publisher, and in addition to wrecking the typography their 'designer' was capable of doing complete sets of DPS pix suffering from this).

 

David

[Steve B]

I have never really thought about it before, But I just had a look and I tend to shoot both, whichever suits best at the time but certainly more horizontal  than vertical.

 

when I am shooting film I prefer square from my 6x6 as opposed to my 6x7.

 

steve.

[wiskerke]

Weird that nobody has complained about the previews for tall images being way smaller than for long ones.

 

landscape original 6144 x 4096 pixels = 640 x 447 pixels for the preview

portrait original 4096 x 6144 pixels = 346 x 540 pixels for the preview

 

wim

[John Mitchell]

Looking back at my recent Web use sales, they are almost all horizontals. Thanks, David, for pointing this out.

 

However, yesterday a vertical $168 postcard company sale popped up, while most of my Web use sales are for peanuts. So I'll definitely keep shooting both formats when possible.

[Phil Robinson]

Thanks for asking the question. I'd never bothered to work it out. It turns out that outdoor ('travel') shots are mostly vertical (just over half) but studio shots are mostly horizontal (c70%)

I am taking even more vertical outdoor shots now since I bought battery packs with vertical shutter release buttons. (see photo, left!)

 

Of my last 60 sales, 39 here horizontal, 3 square and 18 vertical.

[Gervais Montacute]

Maybe about the same. And a few panoramas.