Lee Hird Fine Art Photography : You took a photo portrait style but then redid it in landscape and it became so much better

We have at our disposal the ability to zoom in, zoom out, swap lenses, shoot vertically (ie portrait style) or horizontally (ie landscape style). But what to do when? Here are some pointers.

1. Tell the story - if the story is stronger when shot in portrait style - leave it. Likewise, if the story is stronger when shot landscape style - leave it.
2. Horizontal lines emphasis the horizontal elements in the image.
3. Vertical lines emphasis the vertical lines in an image.
4. Some shots are better cropped square and so when shooting leave space around the story so you can crop. With Instagram being so popular, cropping to a square format requires a little pre thinking before you press the button.
5. Classical landscape images work well with an aspect ratio of 3:1 or 2:1, so experiment with a few images.
6. Don't forget you can also affect the story in many other ways, for example by having the camera low (to reduce emphasis on the foreground) or high and looking down (to enhance the presence of the foreground).

Let us have a look at a few images.

This image shows space, lots of it and isolation. Does shooting in landscape enhance the story or do you think portrait style would have told a stronger story. I think this has a stronger story.

This scene of the mountain range at sunrise needs to be shot landscape and to enhance the view I think 3:1 aspect ratio who do this gorgeous scene more justice.

Here it is again cropped to 3:1 ratio and put on a black mask. Does it look different? Better? Worse?

Here in this shot of two trees, I chose to shoot vertically to emphasis the vertical lines and give strength to the story. Unlike the first image above, the space and isolation were secondary elements to the story.

This Perth skyline image shows lots of vertical lines from the buildings to the colours on the water. Using landscape removed lots of unwanted sky and I could get in all of the buildings and reflections.

In this city shot, I used a square format (for Instagram) but still managed to emphasis the strong vertical lines.

This shot of the bouncer was cropped square and works well as the vertical line of the pole and the horizontal line of the door mat and rope create a nice natural square frame. If I wanted to emphasis the story that he was alone in the line, then shooting landscape with him on one end and letting the rope guide our focus to the rest of the red carpet would have told that story.

In this early morning shot of a rainbow with the sun illuminating the cloud works well vertically because firstly it removes any unwanted elements; it strengthens the linear elements in the scene and connects the clouds to the ground and gives a nice sense of scale to the shot.

In this shot, I framed it all square as I wanted to give everything a "contained" or cramped look. I shot pretty much on the ground as the ground didn't add to the story.

In this shot of an escalator (yes it is an escalator), the square format adds a sense of stability to the image and creates a nice focal point at the end of the elevator.