• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

Are Horizontal Oriented Photographs in Danger

faberryman

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Messages
6,047
Location
Wherever
Format
Multi Format
Just reading the news I came across this tidbit.

https://mashable.com/article/youtube-vertical-video-ads/#I74CB_t9SaqL

With the smartphone becoming the viewing device of choice, YouTube is now approving vertical video ads, and is apparently late to the party. Will we see new cameras with vertical viewfinders in the future? Most of my photographs are horizontal, but two of my recent photographs accepted for publication were vertical. Are they harbingers of a trend?
 
Well, it makes sense if the ads automatically conform to the device being used, but even then - I just turn my phone horizontally when I watch YouTube videos anyway, are people really that lazy?

 
There are also a number of medium format 6x4.5 rangefinders that shoot vertically like the Bronica RF645 and a number of Fuji cameras. I can’t bring myself to try in because 90% of my shots are horizontal.
 
In past years printed publications used a large number of vertical imagery because that fit the format of the page. Horizontals were good for half page and double page layouts. If you are doing images of people the vertical “portrait” orientation is quite natural.
 
Horizontal orientation is still the standard for movies, television, laptops and home computers.

I doubt we will see new cameras with vertical viewfinders in the future ... because viewfinders in general are going out of style on all but higher end digital cameras.

The vertical format is well-suited to selfies and photos of individuals, something popular for snapshots and other photographs which will likely never leave the phone, and almost never be printed.
 
faberryman said:
Will we see new cameras with vertical viewfinders in the future?
Click to expand...

the pen ft is a vertical viewfinder camera
and bencini made a TON of vertical format cameras
not to mention "skyscraper" cameras ( view cameras )
and hundreds of vert format box cameras and folders...

i think it is hillarious that it took so many years to catch on
 
Last edited:
Unless I tell my students to rotate their cameras to vertical for portraits, they will nearly always shoot horizontally. Holding a 35mm camera horizontally seems pretty natural given the way our shoulders, arms and eyes are oriented on us. Ergonomics.

Historically, not all 35mm produced the rectangle we have come to know. Even in recent history we have half-frames. Yet the possibilities of making maximum use of 35mm film (both still and movie) begs the use of horizontal. From the sheer number of 35 mm cameras versus any larger format, the horizontal is ubiquitous.

The predisposition to use a format is a function of the camera you have (or have had) at hand. Our natural tendency to anticipate our experience (with or without a camera) becomes cultivated by the views we use most frequently. I can see like a Nikon 105 f2.5, or 35mm f2 (or a Fuji 23 f2). Back in the day I saw with 150, 180, 210 in 4x5 or the 80 or 150 with the Hass. This all happened instantly. Vertical or horizontal? Ask the Art director who is looking at what the Graphic Designer at the Agency created to fit on the page. But for the greater portion of camera users, the horizontal rectangle became the default.

Cell phones and Instagram have changed that.
 
Last edited:
Vertical displays will always run up against the limit of human vision. We most actively see within ca. a 60° arc horizontally, but only 10-15° degrees vertically. (Our fields of vision are larger, but not as acute.)

Don't get me wrong many times vertical orientation is the way to go artistically. Vertical visuals will never be the norm - it just isn't the way we work physiologically. My prediction is that cell phones and cell phone users are the one who will adapt.
 
mooseontheloose said:
Well, it makes sense if the ads automatically conform to the device being used, but even then - I just turn my phone horizontally when I watch YouTube videos anyway, are people really that lazy?

Click to expand...
Moose, That video is a pisser even if it is horizontal
 
HDTV's and computers and showing videos 16:9 have changed my photography. Once I started making video slide shows with video clips to be shown on my HDTV and now UHDTV, I cropped all my photos to 16:9 to match the video format of my TV's. Now I set the cameras to 16:9 initially so I can format the 16:9 shot in the camera itself. Even on people shots where I once in the old days shot them vertically, I now shoot them horizontally to match the final showing on my TV. If I was to shoot vertically, I don;t get any larger people portions. Add the final shot has those big black bars on each side losing the flow of the video show.
 
It still astounds me that so many people simply don’t know they can turn their phone sideways ...
 
David Brown said:
It still astounds me that so many people simply don’t know they can turn their phone sideways ...
Click to expand...
But David, it makes my flip-phone so awkward to use!
 
David Brown said:
It still astounds me that so many people simply don’t know they can turn their phone sideways ...
Click to expand...

I'm equally astounded by the volume of people who don't realize you can use displays vertically...

Design the media to fit the intended display medium... And use a display medium fit to the recorded media. Have a video that was shot vertically on a phone and intended to be watched on a vertical phone or similar device? - Watch it on a vertical screen... It isn't rocket science.

Or just shoot and frame in 6x6 medium format and ignore the issue entirely?
 
David Brown said:
It still astounds me that so many people simply don’t know they can turn their phone sideways ...
Click to expand...
That's because most folks don't consume their video on a dedicated video site, but usually as part of some social media stream or embedded in a web page. You get some text, some personal comments, then a pic or two, and a video. Constantly rotating a smart phone may be more inconvenient than suffering through a low res video with big black bars on the side.
 
Berkeley Mike said:
...The predisposition to use a format is a function of the camera you have (or have had) at hand. ...
Click to expand...
My Gowland PocketView 4x5, by removing the four screws that hold the camera body onto the standards, one can change from hort to vert or the other-way-round. It is a hassle, and after doing it along a creek, one of the screws fell into the water. While carving a temporary pin to hold the camera on the right back standard, I decided not to do that again. So I keep it vertical and turn the camera sideways for horizontals. Which means I tend to find and take more verticals than horizontals. I have turned the bellows to make the camera a horizontal camera (turning it on its side for verticals) -- and lo and behold, I tended to see and take more horizontals.

It has been tempting to get a light horizontal-only 5x7, but being able to rotate the back is just too nice.
 
Smart phone ergonomics are appalling. Holding a wafer of plastic vertically is far easier than doing the same horizontally, a fingertip exercise if you're to avoid blocking the screen.

Years ago my landscape to portrait ratio was about 75 - 25. Now my upright framing is next to non-existent. 35m 3:2 is too tall for my taste, and as my favoured shots end up in a landscape format book, it seems natural to shoot sideways. That said, I was forced into a portrait composition while out shooting this morning, the first such shot I can recall in years.
 
I agree. Keeping the phone not tilted, finding the shutter button, seeing the screen in the sun. I often just guess at the framing I'm doing aiming in the general direction of the composition hoping I catch it all. However, I recently did a field trip to a fire academy with my men's group. I caught these videos clip and photos with my Galaxy cellphone. I was surprised with the good results. I didn't have my regular camera so I was stuck using the phone. I shoot all photos horizontally so the horizontal video clips are in the same format when I produce the video of the whole thing. The only thing worse than a vertical photo of a landscape from a cell phone is a vertical video.
 
one more reason to shoot a Hasselblad.orientation is decided in the darkroom during enlarging.
 
Damfino.
It's leaf changing time here, I'm photographing the colors with Tmax 100 and tricolor filters, planning to make a tryptych of R G B 8x10 contacts. That's pretty horizontal...
 
I shoot and print square so I do not see this as becoming a problem. Besides my photographs are much better than theirs.
 
Sirius Glass said:
I shoot and print square so I do not see this as becoming a problem. Besides my photographs are much better than theirs.
Click to expand...
You are probably not viewing them on a phone too often either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register