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Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:43 pm
by Greg_Lewis
Watching the news about the forest fires tonight I again saw a number of cell phone videos that would have been much better if framed horizontally.

Please, please, when you shoot video on your cell phone, hold it horizontally. As a former professional cinematographer and still photographer, I beg you, hold it horizontally. Here’s why: No. 1. When you shoot vertical you include overhead or sky and foreground that is almost always irrelevant to the subject. No. 2. 99.999 percent of the time the action moves horizontally. You want to give the viewer a little space in the frame for the action. Too often the vertical framing cuts off the action. No. 3. Human vision is optimized for horizontal perception. We look side-to-side far more than we look up and down and it is much more natural to have space to the sides rather than top and bottom.

So please, hold it horizontally. Your viewers will thank you.

(And hold it as steady as you can, and when you pan, pan about 1/4 as fast as you think and it will be about right.)

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 11:16 pm
by Steggy
Greg_Lewis wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:43 pm Watching the news about the forest fires tonight I again saw a number of cell phone videos that would have been much better if framed horizontally.

Please, please, when you shoot video on your cell phone, hold it horizontally...


Better yet, use a real camera, not a phone pretending to be a camera.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:17 am
by Jim_Nolan
Best quote i have seen on this subject was "not shooting in landscape is a crime against humanity" , I endorse this message :)

Jim.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 10:17 am
by JackF
The one exception is if you are taking a shot of the tallest tree in the world. :) :wink: :lol:

Jack.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:03 pm
by jcfx
Totally in agreement for landscape mode, but unfortunately cell phones in actual use is in portrait mode
( ever try to talk on a cell holding lengthwise ? ) and it's reflexive to start photographing in portrait mode
since the UI is geared towards phone use. It's an awkward device when held in landscape mode.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:37 pm
by Greg_Lewis
One of my former students has been a photojournalist for a major newspaper for over 20 years, and has a few awards to his name. He was on vacation somewhere and somebody stepped up and, not knowing who he was, asked him if he would take a group photo of the family in front of some attraction. He obliged, and as he held the cell phone horizontally to encompass the entire group and the background she barked out at him, "Hold it the right way!" He just smiled, and did what she wanted.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 10:46 pm
by Steggy
jcfx wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:03 pm Totally in agreement for landscape mode, but unfortunately cell phones in actual use is in portrait mode
( ever try to talk on a cell holding lengthwise ? ) and it's reflexive to start photographing in portrait mode
since the UI is geared towards phone use. It's an awkward device when held in landscape mode.
As I said, better to use a real camera.

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:06 am
by atunguyd
The really stupid thing is that the phone companies are putting up to five cameras on the back of the new phone's these days. You would think they would mount one rotated 90 degrees so that the phone can be held comfortably in portrait while the camera is in landscape

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk



Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 5:10 am
by Greg_Lewis
atunguyd wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:06 am The really stupid thing is that the phone companies are putting up to five cameras on the back of the new phone's these days. You would think they would mount one rotated 90 degrees so that the phone can be held comfortably in portrait while the camera is in landscape

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

Now there's the idea. What an obvious solution!

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:40 am
by 12L14

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:46 am
by NP317
LOL!!! Great video. Thanks for the laughs.
And I agree.
RussN

Re: Cell phone video: please, please, shoot horizontal

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:17 pm
by jcfx
BigDumbDinosaur wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 10:46 pm As I said, better to use a real camera.
But you can't make calls or text with a real camera !
:wink:

Couldn't agree with you more but the kool-ade has been drunk by the masses.