Vertical and horizontal

I started this project in my local town centre on a market day. My intention was to start with vertical shots of interesting buildings and places, and then take the same shot in horizontal format. To add interest I then moved into the market to experiment with vertical and horizontal shots of stalls and stall holders. Most stall holders were happy to have their photographs taken when asked. Taking 20 shots in each format was too many for the location and I was beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel. So I drove to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to complete the project and, even then, I had to add a small number of images taken during other outings. Because of time limitations, the distance of the locations and the frequently changing nature of the flea market and sculpture exhibitions, I adapted the exercise slightly. I took the vertical shots, immediately reviewed them on the camera screen, then took the horizontal shots straight away. I only changed the zoom setting on the lens when it was necessary to avoid a very poorly composed image. The camera was almost always set to aperture priority with the smallest aperture possible for increased depth of field.

Chesterfield Town Centre and Flea Market

My first inclination would always have been to shoot this building in horizontal format to show the repeating patterns formed by the roof and the vertical columns. Vertical format required me to look for other interesting features with greater emphasis on detail rather than pattern. I chose the section of the building that wasn't just plain panels and which included more of the shadows and reflections from nearby trees. Because this shot contains the doors, which form a familiar reference point, there is a greater sense of the height of the building. I feel the image made it worth looking at the building with a vertical shot in mind.

Vertical format for the town council offices provided a reasonably interesting record shot of the pillared entrance. Horizontal format, taking in the embracing sweep of the front wall, provides a better impression of the scale and grandeur of the building. This is helped by shooting up at the building from a low angle, which did not have the same impact on the vertical shot of the entrance. If I had used the same zoom setting for both images, either the vertical format would have had a lot of sky, or the horizontal format would not have had so much of the building to the sides of the entrance, thereby reducing its impact.

My preference would have been to shoot this image in vertical. While the building is remarkable with its odd gable not attached to anything, the figures in the foreground add context and interest to what would otherwise be a record shot. It is a good example of the point made in the course materials that, when shooting in vertical there is a tendency to place the main weight of image below centre. I found this in other shots as well. The people at the market stall and the building have much less prominence in the horizontal format, therefore the image is more of a general street scene, with less impact.

I took these shots from the pedestrian footbridge over the town's ring road. I thought that the vertical shot would provide more of a sense of travel to and from the distance, but this didn't come out strongly, perhaps because of the fairly close bend. The horizontal format worked best by showing more of the travel in both directions. I set the camera to shutter priority with a low speed to provide motion blur for representing the speed of the traffic.

In these shots I concentrated on a symmetrical composition. The symmetry is more obvious in the horizontal format with more of the market stalls in view and the off-centre people being much smaller. However, I feel the vertical composition works well also, with the market hall being prominent and balance provided by the more obvious figures in the foreground.

Because I wanted to emphasise the attractive attire of the stall holder, my first preference would always have been a vertical shot. The weight of the subject is in the top two-thirds of the image because the more interesting context is the contents of the stall rather than the stall roofs. There is enough bric-a-brac in the foreground to place the character in his context and the vertical format minimises distraction from other people. The two-thirds : one-third composition works well. While there is more of the character's context in the horizontal format, the image loses impact because the main subject is less prominent and there's too much distraction in the background.

As with the previous pair of images, the main subject and the context comes out better in the vertical format than in the horizontal. 

In this pair, I feel that the horizontal format works better. Neither format was going to successfully isolate a subject so I concentrated on the pile of shoes and the horizontal format makes more of it. For the same reason, I gave the shoes the prominent two-thirds of the image.

The horizontal format works much better here as well by transforming a still-life into more of a street photography style picture with the inclusion of the passers-by. Their glances in the same direction and the way they are either side of the strongly coloured bust adds to the impact of the picture.

The vertical format gives more emphasis to the depth and narrowness of the alleyway, while the horizontal attracts the eye to the greater expanse of the foreground building and pavement.

As with the previous pair of alley images, the horizontal format gives much more emphasis to what is happening in the foreground than the setting in an alley. 

This pair of photographs was taken during a union rally in the town centre. I was experimenting with different ways of portraying the large number of people in the setting. The horizontal format, in this case,  is less effective because, while it includes more people, their smaller size loses the sense of closeness to them and the feeling of being in the crowd. The vertical format gives more weight to the people and their activity while retaining a key feature of the setting.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The shape of the head is broadly vertical so the vertical image format enables a good close-up without any background distraction. The only way of avoiding the tree in the horizontal format would have been to have more space behind the head than in front of it, which would have provided an odd composition given the direction in which the figure is facing. On the other hand, the adjacency of the tree was very much part of the sculptor's installation so it is reasonable to include it as a representation of the sculptor's work. (Sculpture by Jaume Plensa- Yorkshire Sculpture Park).

In this pair I could use the horizontal format to create a less static image; one which gives more of a sense that the figure is looking at something in the distance. This isn't achieved to the same extent in the vertical format and the emphasis is more on the figure itself than the figure and its 'activity'. (Sculpture by Elizabeth Frink - Yorkshire Sculpture Park).

Similarly, in this pair, the horizontal format gives much more of a sense of the figure running into space rather than than bumping up against the edge of the frame. The vertical format, however, gives a closer and more detailed view of the structure and texture of the sculpture, as is the case with the previous two pairs.  (Sculpture by Elizabeth Frink - Yorkshire Sculpture Park).

Chatsworth Sculpture Exhibition

This sculpture of a lion made from car tyres, by Ji Yong-Ho, was recently exhibited in Chatsworth House Gardens. A close-up was chosen to show the texture in the sculpture. But for the exercise I would automatically have chosen the horizontal format, which works well by showing more of the mane. The vertical shot, I feel, has more impact through emphasising the ferocity of the face.

Shireoaks Marina

The temptation would be a horizontal format image of the canal boat, from the side, given its long narrow shape. A shot from the front provides a more interesting picture and the vertical format enables the interesting patterns and shapes of the 'sharp end' to be picked out.

White Nancy

White Nancy, on a hill near Manchester, appears to lend itself to a vertical format shot, and this provides a reasonable record of the monument and the walkers have their lunch in its shelter. However, a few minutes later, a horizontal format shot of the White Nancy against the darker, sweeping sky and overlooking the plain, has more impact. (These shots were taken with a compact camera on the program setting and it is interesting to see the impact of the darker sky on the exposure for the white monument).

Near Grindleford Station

These pictures were taken with a standard, fixed focal length lens. I was attracted by the eeriness created by the contorted trees twisting over the moss covered boulders against a blackening sky. My natural inclination would have been to select a horizontal format shot, however, I like the way the vertical format has given more attention to the shape of the two trees in the foreground and those twisting immediately behind them. It also seems to give more impact to the boulders in the foreground. At the same time, the horizontal format gives a little more impression of the expanse of the wood.

My Backyard

These images were taken at night using remotely controlled off-camera flash. The vertical format works because it matches the overall shape and direction of travel of the spider, giving a sense of the spider going somewhere. The strength of the horizontal format is in showing more of the expanse of the web and its very fine strands selectively picked out by the flash. It was definitely worth taking the shot in both formats.