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Landscape vs Portrait

Processing Deep Sky
Dan WertzTony GondolaDavid Light Jr.
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Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
How do you all decide on presenting an image in Landscape vs Portrait mode?  Clearly if there is an actual landscape in the image like many Milky Way images then the decision was made when you captured the image.  But for most deep sky images it can often go either way.  I have an image that I envisioned in portrait mode and right up until I posted the image was how I planned to release it.  However, when viewing the image on my computer, the portrait orientation limits the size to occupy a small portion of the monitor real estate.  The landscape lets me fill the entire monitor with the image and could even work as a background.

If I were to print and hang this image I would do it in portrait mode.  However, my wife complicated the issue by declaring that she prefers the image in landscape.

Do you guys give any consideration to how the image fits the monitor?  I am probably way over thinking this.

The image in question at the moment.  Maybe I like the portrait version because "usually" the trunk is near vertical.


vs 


Thanks,
Dan
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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Decide with the basic rules of composition and see what you like best. It's something that should be top of mind before you start gathering data anyway. After the fact,  it's easy to try different orientations in post so just rotate it around, sometimes you'll be surprised.
Brian Boyle avatar
Brian Boyle avatar
No right or wrong way.  Go with what feels right for you (or for the audience).   Orientation (and framing) are part of the creative process.  For me, there are a number of images that have gone from woe to Whoa with a simple 90degree rotation. 

As Tony has said there are basic rules for composition, but those rules are more like guidelines, really.
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David Gluchowski avatar
David Gluchowski avatar
Agree with the above, but just wanted to add that I like the landscape framing of your image better because the eye moves naturally from the foreground, which is in the bottom of the frame, to the background, at the top. I think our eyes are used to viewing pictures this way from past experiences with landscape paintings/photography.

Obviously everything changes when your subject and framing change.
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Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
Brian Boyle:
gone from woe to Whoa

This thread was worth it just for this quote.

Thanks for all the replies!  I am getting that the display format of the monitor is not really a concern and to just go for what looks best purely based on composition.

David, my wife claimed that the landscape version "pulled her in more".  Hearing your theory of our minds being conditioned over the years by past experiences makes sense and resonates with me.  I thought the Garnet Star needed to be in the upper right because light bulbs are up high right?

I think I need to un-see the other images of a target and just trust the process rather than trying to mimic other people's successes.  It is funny, I acquired data for the above image over two years, and the entire time, including my planning for it I pictured the final result in Portrait.  But yeah, just trying it out in landscape mode made me think maybe not.  Perhaps for the wrong reasons initially.  Setting Photoshop to full screen mode and filling the screen with the image made me go hmm..
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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Just remember that frames are important so sometimes making the image smaller, rather than full screen can be a good way help judge things. People have been thinking of these things for a very, very long time. It's always helpful to look at great art, paintings, photography, etc. and try and figure out why a composition you like, works. Is the subject clear, what path does the eye take as it scans the image, how does it make you feel? I know this is all fuzzy/feely for us hardcore Astrophographers but I think it's important.
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Josh avatar
Josh avatar
Dan Wertz:
Brian Boyle:
gone from woe to Whoa

This thread was worth it just for this quote.

Thanks for all the replies!  I am getting that the display format of the monitor is not really a concern and to just go for what looks best purely based on composition.

David, my wife claimed that the landscape version "pulled her in more".  Hearing your theory of our minds being conditioned over the years by past experiences makes sense and resonates with me.  I thought the Garnet Star needed to be in the upper right because light bulbs are up high right?

I think I need to un-see the other images of a target and just trust the process rather than trying to mimic other people's successes.  It is funny, I acquired data for the above image over two years, and the entire time, including my planning for it I pictured the final result in Portrait.  But yeah, just trying it out in landscape mode made me think maybe not.  Perhaps for the wrong reasons initially.  Setting Photoshop to full screen mode and filling the screen with the image made me go hmm..

To give you an idea of how my "eye" moved through each image:

Vertical, it went in the bottom, past the Trunk, got lost on it's way up the wall and crashed and burned.
Horizontal, It went in at the left side, took in the trunk, kept moving and "sloshed" up the wall on the right, and back down into the image, and back to the trunk where it "sloshed" again back into the bowl.

The Horizontal image would be my preference.
Jared Willson avatar
Jared Willson avatar
I, too, prefer the landscape orientation since it feels more balanced. Our eyes are used to seeing scenes where the top and bottom are very different (land and sky), but images where left and right are dramatically different generally feel lopsided.

- Jared
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Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
My wife is feeling very smug right now smile

I really appreciate all the responses, and hearing why you prefer one over the other is really helpful.

I will try and be aware of the path my eyes follow when looking at other images.  That seems like a good learning exercise.  I imagine it will take some practice though.
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Brian Boyle avatar
Brian Boyle avatar
FWIW, I prefer the vertical. 

For me, it is more unbalanced and therefore more dynamic.

I dont want to be comfortably sloshed from side to side but rather overwhelmed by the great wave off Kanagawa. ;)

Whatever floats your boat (or not).

CS Brian
Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
Brian Boyle:
FWIW, I prefer the vertical.


High Five!!

Dare we say it is more "edgy" 

I can't really explain it, but I feel lighter and more excited when I look at the vertical.  But I do get all the comments preferring the horizontal. 

The good news is once printed I can hang it either way.  Horizontal when my wife is home and vertical when I am batching it!
CraigT82 avatar
CraigT82 avatar
Just hang it portrait then turn your wife landscape… everyone’s happy! 

FWIW I prefer portrait too, if only as it’s sometimes difficult to find good portrait orientation wall art, but I do see the appeal of the landscape, it’s more classically ‘right’, with it’s the distinct foreground/background.
Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
Just hang it portrait then turn your wife landscape… everyone’s happy!

Awesome!
SkyHoinar avatar
SkyHoinar avatar
The image in question at the moment.  Maybe I like the portrait version because "usually" the trunk is near vertical.

Me, I framed it vertically downward, just to visualize better the elephant in the picture 😏
James Markgraf avatar
James Markgraf avatar
Maybe I'm just an oddball but I kind of like the way it looks in inverted landscape. It gives me the perceived perspective that I am looking up and through it and my eyes take in so much of the beauty all at once.
David Light Jr. avatar
David Light Jr. avatar
I prefer the landscape version. For wide field, landscape orientation just feels better. For long FL, sometimes portrait is the only way to frame an object. With my C11HD, I always attempt to frame in landscape, but there are exceptions. Here’s one. 
Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
Me, I framed it vertically downward, just to visualize better the elephant in the picture 😏


LOL, maybe I don't even know what the elephant is.  I like your B&W version.
James Markgraf:
Maybe I'm just an oddball but I kind of like the way it looks in inverted landscape. It gives me the perceived perspective that I am looking up and through it and my eyes take in so much of the beauty all at once.

OK you made me curious, and I tried it, and I feel like I am looking out of a cave lit by firelight.  It is kind of crazy how the orientation evokes such diferent feelings.
David Light Jr.:
I prefer the landscape version. For wide field, landscape orientation just feels better. For long FL, sometimes portrait is the only way to frame an object. With my C11HD, I always attempt to frame in landscape, but there are exceptions. Here’s one.

I agree, in my mind that closeup needs to be portrait.  BTW that is a really nice image, and I really like the cool color palette.  You should add it to your gallery.
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SkyHoinar avatar
SkyHoinar avatar
Dan Wertz:
Me, I framed it vertically downward, just to visualize better the elephant in the picture 😏


LOL, maybe I don't even know what the elephant is.  I like your B&W version.

Maybe it is Just My Imagination.
(Revision C)
James Markgraf avatar
James Markgraf avatar
Dan Wertz:
OK you made me curious, and I tried it, and I feel like I am looking out of a cave lit by firelight.  It is kind of crazy how the orientation evokes such diferent feelings.


That was the way I felt in a nutshell. It really is fun to play around with the orientation of stuff just to see how the human brain reacts. It doesn't work quite as well with subjects that have been ingrained within our minds that they should be in a specific orientation (things like animals/peoples/landscapes) but, when looking at nebulosity, you can get some pretty crazy feelings.
David Light Jr. avatar
David Light Jr. avatar
Dan Wertz:
Me, I framed it vertically downward, just to visualize better the elephant in the picture 😏


LOL, maybe I don't even know what the elephant is.  I like your B&W version.
James Markgraf:
Maybe I'm just an oddball but I kind of like the way it looks in inverted landscape. It gives me the perceived perspective that I am looking up and through it and my eyes take in so much of the beauty all at once.

OK you made me curious, and I tried it, and I feel like I am looking out of a cave lit by firelight.  It is kind of crazy how the orientation evokes such diferent feelings.
David Light Jr.:
I prefer the landscape version. For wide field, landscape orientation just feels better. For long FL, sometimes portrait is the only way to frame an object. With my C11HD, I always attempt to frame in landscape, but there are exceptions. Here’s one.

I agree, in my mind that closeup needs to be portrait.  BTW that is a really nice image, and I really like the cool color palette.  You should add it to your gallery.

Thank you.
Dan Wertz avatar
Dan Wertz avatar
(Revision C)


LOL Oh my!!!!!  I have been looking at this all wrong



My assumption was there was an elephant head and trunk as below.  Mind blown!
Die Launische Diva avatar
Die Launische Diva avatar
Personally I find the landscape version more balanced. Having said that, the portrait version is not that bad (compositionally-wise of course, I like your image a lot). It just feels as something in missing from the left-center side.
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Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
I almost always prefer landscape for a simple reason and that is I emphatically discourage people from viewing my images on a phone (sadly all too common) and the vast majority of PC monitors are in landscape. 

When I send people to my webpage or Astrobin page it is with the admonition to please not view on a phone. It is frustrating  because we all work so hard to get the best from our images only to have people fail to appreciate the details we worked so hard to get simply because they are looking at a tiny screen.

OTOH if it is for printing then either is probably fine as the size will be quite large in most cases and taste (and maybe where it is going to hang) would become important. Having said that, given how fast imaging and processing are improving, a nice and $$ print will probably be obsolete in a year - why I prefer a "picture frame" style monitor on the wall instead of a print.

Just my opinion, of course....
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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
That's a loosing battle. My other hobby is music and I'm always begging people that I send track to, please don't listen on your phone with earbuds but guess what, they do anyway. At the end of the day I decided that it was more important that they listen then the fact that they might miss some nuance with my fantastic mixing skills!
Peter avatar
Peter avatar
Hi Dan.
I print a lot and find that how you portray the image, alters how it looks.
So the best advice i can give is this. Go with what looks best to you.
The beauty of print is that you can turn it round any time you want to.