Mixing Portrait and Landscape?

[hywel]

Any suggestions for mixing portrait and landscape pictures in one portfolio?

I'm looking to put various of my photos into order, in nice books, in what I guess could be called portfolios but which I'd think of as nice Photo Albums. Purely personal, for my current enjoyment and my future enjoyment, to show some friends and family, absolutely no interest in marketing but I do want nice presentation.

Collecting my prints in a box it doesn't seem so problematic to mix landscape and portrait. You pull them out one by one and naturally seem to rotate them as you do so but in a book you are not going to rotate a book. Trouble is pictures in one of the directions is going to be way too small if I stick to 91/2 x12.

Last week I printed some shots off, still 6x9, on 11x14 paper (the paper in portrait). The landscape pictures I did about 2/3 of the way up the paper and even though the side margins are small I quite like the look. The portrait pictures however look a bit swamped by the white. And overall the paper seems a little large to be holding in one's hand.

I'm sure that there is no ideal solution to this but, before I start spending too much money on books or time on printing, what are people's experiences as to the compromises with which I might end up most comfortable?

Thanks,

Hywel

 

[DWThomas]

Bearing in mind I'm just a hobbiest and not using the work for promoting myself ...

I pretty much use the page. I've put together a ring binder, mounting some of my test prints on pieces (scraps) of 8x10 mat board. I then fasten the mat board to a piece of black construction paper cut to 9x11 from a 9x12 sheet. That gives a black border like a frame. (Some better black material would be nicer.) Portrait oriented shots -- typically around 5x7 -- are mounted so the ring binder hinge is on the left. Landscape shots are set with the binder hinge at the top. It only requires a 1/4 turn by the viewer and most appear to handle it instinctively.

Of course after all that is said, a lot of my work currently is square at 5x5 to 6x6 inches! (For that I use "optical centering" with a vertical orientation on the 8x10 mat.)

I was just showing this quasi-portfolio to a photo teacher at the local community college last night, he had expressed an interest in seeing my pinhole shots. He seemed quite pleased with the presentation. I've gotten good feedback from family members too. (And it does something vaguely useful with the successful test prints.)

My 1.4¢ after taxes,

DaveT

 

[nicolai]

Mount on square board?