We live in a horizontal and vertical world. We see this most often when taking photo or videos and are forced between shooting portrait or landscape. The recent ubiquity of smart phones as the primary source for many of our photos and videos has meant a movement to capture more of our content in portrait than landscape picture. However this had resulted in a large mismatch between how we now take our pictures and how we view them.
Think of the ways we view photos and videos off of our cell phones. Computer screens, TVs and tablets are the most common way we view and share content yet each of these are predominately landscape formats. Historically cameras shoot in landscape and it was the rare photographer who would shoot a lot in portrait. Smartphones are typically shot in portrait because that is how we hold them (and human beings tend to be more portrait than landscape ☺). Portrait photos mean a less than ideal viewing expiring one the photos move off the phone.
Even worse than portrait photos are portrait videos. Historically videos were never taken in portrait format. Every viewer of videos is set for landscape yet many smartphones allow video to be shot in portrait. This is unfortunate as it leads to a significantly reduced viewing experience. Although Locket support the importation of portrait video in Locket the red record button does not come active until the camera is turned into landscape. As a rule of thumb – always shoot video in landscape.
For photos there is no easy solution other than to be aware of the problem and if in doubt – shoot in landscape. One other solution is to have pictures cropped square at the time you take the photo. Square photos generally work well on any viewer.
