Tip Tusday: Part 3

To ReVisit Part 1 Is Here & Part 2 Is Here on

'How to Make Your Day to Day Photography Better"

And the photos again...

                                       Bad Photo                                   Good Photo

Simple Tip: It’s called “portrait” orientation for a good reason

 It’s right there in the name, yet the vast majority of snapshots of people are horizontal prints (probably because it’s easier to hold the camera that way). A very easy way to improve most of your compositions is to turn the camera, remembering that “portrait orientation is for people, landscape is for landscapes.”

People are tall and thin, so they fill the frame better when the photo is vertical. In the bad photo, Keelan doesn’t fill the picture. He is the subject, but he’s not the focus. In the good photo,  Keelan fills the frame.

Now for the other part..
ALL RULES WERE MEANT TO BE BROKEN..... Somtimes :)
Finding ways to break this rule can lead to very interesting compositions. Most of the time landscape orientation portraits are showing a beautiful landscape, like this portrait:

Close-ups can be very interesting, though, too, because it usually leads to cropping the face in an unexpected way:

If you’re going to use a horizontal orientation, though, it’s important to remember to watch your composition and remember Tip #1, GET CLOSE!  You most likely will be creating some white or empty space, so you’ll want to make sure that space really is white (eg. not full of clutter.. lamp, furniture, toys, etc) and that you utilize the rule of thirds to keep things interesting.

For More of the rule of thirds Check Out Next Weeks Tip Tuesday for our “simple photography tip.”