Taking Photo on a Mobile Phone - Hold phone portrait or landscape?

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MadEngineer

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#3319669 12-Dec-2024 17:43

geoffwnz:
There's no intrinsic reason why cameras and phones etc have to have a rectangular field of view. You can make the sensor as a square and the lens will handle it.

I suspect it comes back to historical reasons of film being a certain aspect ratio and they've maintained that into newer technology.

It’s because such ratios are more pleasing to the eye.

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Oblivian

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#3319709 12-Dec-2024 19:35

My eyes are side by side. Naturally that has a wider FoV.

As is the TV.

Anything else is because people are apparently born with a phone in their palm that only fits one way.

No other reason for it.

We had a wicked storm a few years back. Here I was filming heaps of sky and all the lightning (landscape). Then saw a video of someone in portrait panning back and forth angry they were missing things. If only there was another way...

geoffwnz

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#3319733 12-Dec-2024 19:36

MadEngineer:
geoffwnz:

There's no intrinsic reason why cameras and phones etc have to have a rectangular field of view. You can make the sensor as a square and the lens will handle it.

I suspect it comes back to historical reasons of film being a certain aspect ratio and they've maintained that into newer technology.

It’s because such ratios are more pleasing to the eye.

Maybe I should have said "no technical reason". :-)

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TwoSeven

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#3319738 12-Dec-2024 20:09

On an iPhone 15 Pro Max, I usually always take pictures in landscape mode.

A little trick is to use what is called the 'rule of thirds' - basically, divide the screen into a 3 by 3 grid, with the object of the photo on the left hand third line, and anything in the background (item of interest) in the right hand third line. The iPhone camera settings allow turning on gridlines to help with this.

Another feature on the iPhone (I assume android might have something similar) is a setting to correct 'barrel distortion' which is that slight warping on the top and bottom of the phone when different cameras (lenses) are used - for example the closeup Lense.

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Technofreak

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#3319830 13-Dec-2024 06:58

I've had issues in the past with photos taken on Apple products not orientating correctly on a laptop.

Otherwise landscape unless specific reasons dictate otherwise.

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Groucho

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#3319859 13-Dec-2024 10:14

Oblivian:

My eyes are side by side. Naturally that has a wider FoV.

As is the TV.

Anything else is because people are apparently born with a phone in their palm that only fits one way.

No other reason for it.

We had a wicked storm a few years back. Here I was filming heaps of sky and all the lightning (landscape). Then saw a video of someone in portrait panning back and forth angry they were missing things. If only there was another way...

Exactly! I've seen similar footage which becomes nauseating to watch. I watch people at outdoor concerts filming (who clearly haven't read the terms of their ticket) who are continually flailing left to right while zoomed in which amplifies the jerkiness.

Groucho

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#3319863 13-Dec-2024 10:28

wellygary:

And the "historical" reason film was horizontal is that the main human visual field is generally 2x as wide as it is high (120 degree wide and 60 degree up down) - which is a function of your eyes being arranged horizontally across your head... not up and down

So much so cinema screens got wider and wider over the decades to give a more immersive experience. Then home video came along where everything was panned and scanned to focus the main action within a 4:3 frame for TV. Problem was it didn't and (with some generous rounding) cropped off up to half the picture so an actor talking to someone you couldn't see off screen. When stereo home video came along it made it even more obvious as the sound staging placed sounds where they should be but didn't necessarily see it or was centre frame when you hear it off to the side.

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mudguard

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#3319864 13-Dec-2024 10:36

I often watch compilation videos on YouTube and can't help think they should bin anything shot in portrait.

But then they wouldnt get half the footage.
I mean would you turn your TV sideways to watch?

richms

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#3319871 13-Dec-2024 10:53

Without a decent wide angle lens which has only been a recent thing to go on phones, vertical was usually the only way to get something in the frame entirely without being a long way from it. That has entrenched holding it that way to fit instead of zooming out. Also there are still many people with antique or cheap phones without a wide camera on them.

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richms

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#3319872 13-Dec-2024 10:54

mudguard: I often watch compilation videos on YouTube and can't help think they should bin anything shot in portrait.

But then they wouldnt get half the footage.
I mean would you turn your TV sideways to watch?

But I am watching it on a device I can turn? What I would like to see is aspect ratios able to change during a video so that they stop this crap of taking a nice vertical video and padding it out with blurry crap on the sides to fill a horizontal timeline, which means I cannot see it as recorded on my phone without zooming the video in and out constantly.

Richard rich.ms

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