The Landscape vs Portrait Photo Debate

[Gillian]

The overuse of photos in portrait rather than landscape layout has been a bugbear of mine for a while now. What am I on about? See below ...

This photo in portrait mode (whether shot or just cropped that way) might well fill the screen of a phone or tablet that can be rotated into portrait mode ...



But when viewed on a widescreen desktop or laptop screen, will appear like this ...



My recent survey, whilst it only drew 24 responses, showed that the majority look at images on either a desktop or laptop.



In which case, why can't the photographer shoot or crop images to look like this?



This LANDSCAPE image fills the screen on a desktop, laptop and of course on a tablet or phone if rotated. Those that want things bigger can zoom in, no matter the device.

Everyone is happy, n'est ce pas?

So can I make this plea to the powers that be for them to encourage those shooting scenes to submit their stills in landscape format, or at least use fewer portrait shots ?

(and breathe ... )

[Gillian]

Who knew I was the only person bugged by this ...

[jennieh]

I agree. Landscape format also make them better for computer wallpaper on screen savers

[hwbs]

I only care about this as far as instagram is concerned... With porn I have zero opinion

[rbiller]

As a former wedding and portrait photographer it bugs me too but I find it even worse when it comes to video. You see all these news clips taken by cell phones. Don't people realize that people will be watching these on a TV which is in landscape mode? Is it so hard to turn the phone to capture it the correct way?