My first worked quite well in both formats, although I had
to move around the bridge in order to suit the wider photo. This in turn had a
detrimental effect on the use of depth of field shown in the vertical shot as
the fence posts were a more equal distance from the camera.
My photo of the children between the rocks fit better in
portrait so in order to balance the shot in landscape, I asked my son to
stretch his arms out to fill the shot.
The farm building works in both formats; however I feel that
the vertical is a more balanced shot. In the horizontal, the left hand side of
the building fills the frame and appears much heavier than the right. In the
vertical, not only does the left hand building appear smaller but the
counterbalancing shed to the far right is much closer to the edge of the
screen, weighing this side down.
In the shot of the power station, I feel that without the
people the vertical shot wouldn’t have worked at all. The vertical setting
brings depth to the shot which highlights the distance the people are walking.
Without the people, the depth would have been unnecessary. The horizontal shot
would have still been an acceptable photo without the people as it is showing
the breadth of the power station buildings but wouldn’t have held quite as much
interest without them.
With this shot, I chose to place the main subject in the
lower half of the shot with secondary interest above. To fit the scene to a
horizontal frame, I widened the gap between the bugs by changing my angle to
them.
I purposely chose this subject for its vertical structure
but with the horizontal shot in mind, I composed from an angle using a wide
aperture for narrow depth of field. I felt that the horizontal variation would
help to create interest in the wider shot.
As a lover of the contrast between industry and nature, this
vertical scene works for me. The top half of the shot shows the grey power
station with all its bold lines and curves while we see the grass, river and
ducks, provided by nature at the bottom. Half way up the shot, between the
ducks and the chimneys, the worlds are separated by an old boat, man made yet
rotting away, gradually becoming a part of the nature which surrounds it.
Although the horizontal shot is split in the same way, I feel that the width of the shot makes the split feel less obvious, giving the shot much less impact.
This shot in vertical shows a girl climbing onto a boat. The
horizontal shot show a boat with a girl climbing onto it. The change in
orientation shifts the focus from one subject to the other by placing more of
the boat in the frame.
In the horizontal shipyard shot, the eye is drawn to the
slightly diagonal line flowing from the ship to the old boat. The vertical
shot, being viewed from top to bottom rather than left to right, draws much
less attention to this line. My eye is now drawn to the scaffold structure at
the top of the ship.
This vertical shot shows manmade and natural light sources
illuminating the manmade road and the fields which are more a part of nature.
In the horizontal shot, I couldn’t fit the main lamppost into the shot without ruining
the position of the moon and as a result, have also lost most of the road. The
photo now is merely of a large moon illuminating the field and the manmade
elements would probably be better edited out.
The abstract nature of this close up makes it work pretty
well in both landscape and portrait orientation, although the portrait version
does show more depth.
These shots were taken from the opposite seat of the seesaw
whilst on the move and there are elements of both photos that I like. The
vertical frame seems to enhance the up and down motion of the seesaw to the
point where it makes me feel slightly light headed. The horizontal shot still shows
movement to a lesser extent but I feel that the included slide to the left helps to set
the scene.
This shot of two cousins helping each other fits nicely into
a vertical frame and if it hadn’t been for this exercise, I might have left it
at that. Gladly I didn’t as I feel that zooming in for the horizontal shows so
much more. Attention is now more focused on the facial expressions as well as
the task at hand which makes the photo tell more about human relationships than
building a rope swing.
Although the rope swing fits very neatly into a vertical
frame, I feel that the extra space shown in the horizontal gives the swing a
setting.
Rope swing shots often fit nicely into a vertical frame and
I feel that the girl sitting on the hill creates a nice balance. My attempts at
a similar horizontal shot didn’t go quite so well. I have shown two shots using
this orientation, neither of which worked very well at all.
Later on, I caught a horizontal shot of my daughter sitting on the rope swing rather than hanging which fits much better with this orientation because of the less upright body position. I did feel though that I couldn’t put this subject matter to rest without including the following shot: a horizontal shot of my son hanging from a similar rope swing (taken last year.) This is merely to remind me not to keep the camera upright just because I’m photographing hanging bodies. I feel that the orientation of this photo promotes the sideways swing of the feet and creates a much more dynamic image than it would have vertically.
I leave this exercise with a resolution to avoid pigeonholing
photos into the obvious orientation. I feel that I have left this challenge
with several photos I may not have taken if it weren’t for the task and it will
be something I will remember in future projects.
