Portrait vs. landscape: Orient your photos for maximum impact.

Understand the rule of thirds.

Imagine each photo is a grid of nine equal cells. This can help you compose images. In many cameras, you can turn on a rule of thirds grid to make these imaginary cells visible.

As you assess the main subject of your image, think about which section will best convey your message. Position the main subject, for example, in the bottom third of the frame, and again in the center left cell. Snap a few shots with the main subject located in the cross points where the grid lines intersect. These locations often produce the strongest emotional impact.

“I find that if you have no idea how you’re going to crop an image, the image should look okay if you put the main subject either on a place where the lines intersect or in one of these corners,” Photoshop expert Jesús Ramirez says.

Use camera modes to capture the image.

Preprogrammed camera settings can help beginners learn what to look for in the camera’s manual settings. For example, whether shooting portraits or a horizontal image, you might want to blur the background to draw attention to your subject. The portrait mode on your smartphone camera will automatically shorten the depth of field, keeping your subject in focus while blurring the background. Using a DSLR or mirrorless camera in manual mode, you’ll need to know the focus range of your lens. Get as close to your subject as possible and zoom in as far as you can, and choose the largest aperture available on your camera.

Smaller apertures typically make everything in your image really crisp, as opposed to larger aperture settings, often used to blur the background with a bokeh effect in portraits. Use lower apertures for landscapes. And set your camera up on a tripod so you can use longer shutter speeds.

Change the image post-shoot.

If your in-the-moment image composition doesn’t quite work when you get ready to use the photo, you can always change the orientation, aspect ratio, and size of your image in Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop. And when your photo is a little crooked, you can straighten it with these programs too.

Finesse your composition.

“You have to keep in mind the purpose of an image when you’re cropping,” Ramirez says. “For example, you might want to create some negative space at the top or on the right side of your image so a designer can put some text there.”

The rule of thirds grid will help you land on your composition. If you need more sky above your subject, you can use the Content-Aware Fill tool in Photoshop to fill in the missing space. Although Content-Aware Fill was designed to replace unwanted objects from an image with new details from the surrounding area, it can also fill in blank spaces.

Flip your image.

Sometimes you want to reverse the perspective of your image. For example, that running cheetah image might look menacing in a magazine if the page orientation places it next to a portrait of a toddler on a swing. Solve the problem by flipping the entire image horizontally so the cat is running away from the child. With Image Rotation commands you can also flip an image vertically.

Crop to shape your photo.

You can modify your image composition with the Crop tool.

1. Click the crop icon in Photoshop (or the C key). 

2. Use the crop handles to click and drag or use a free-form crop to select the part of the image you want to keep.

3. Choose Image › Crop.

Be sure the Delete Cropped Pixels box is unchecked or you will lose the pixels outside of your image area.

You can also use the Trim tool to remove transparent pixels or background pixels of a specific color from the top, bottom, left, or right area of your image.

Change the aspect ratio.

Various applications call for specific aspect ratios such as 1:1 (square) or 16:9 (widescreen). You can use the aspect ratio drop-down if you need a specific one, or use the original aspect ratio. You can also rotate the aspect ratio from landscape to portrait with the X key, or click the flip icon.

Straighten the image.

A crooked photo creates visual tension. It can be dramatic. But it can be jarring if you don’t want to convey a sense of imbalance or chaos. If your horizontal and vertical lines should be straight but aren’t, you can align them in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

In Lightroom, click the crop icon (or the R key) to reveal the grid overlay. Grab the rotate icon (two arrows) that’s just outside the box to rotate your image until it aligns with the grid lines. Lightroom also provides a Straighten slider below the Crop tool. Double-tap the middle of the slider bar for an initial adjustment. You can tweak it from there.

Use the Perspective Crop tool in Photoshop to make a box around something angled that should be straight, and it will automatically adjust it. You can also hover outside of the corner handles and click and drag to line things up.

Ramirez recommends using Camera Raw inside of Photoshop to adjust an image perspective.

1.  Go to Filter › Camera Raw filter › Geometry

2. Select the Guided icon

3. Draw two or more guides (lines) on the image to adjust the perspective

4. Click OK

You can create a crop preset if there’s a dimension you use frequently.

1.  Select New Crop Preset from the drop-down menu

2. Photoshop provides a name or you can type a custom name in the data field of the dialog box

3. Click OK

The next time you open the drop-down menu, your preset crop dimensions will be available near the bottom of the menu.

Learn from a pro photographer.

Photographer Chris Burkard captures landscapes from around the world, giving people a sense of places they may never go. Hear Burkard share tips on scale and perspective to help you understand ways to use different photo orientations.

Your choice isn’t necessarily final.

It takes patience, practice, and intuition to create stunning images. Start experimenting. Don’t let the dilemma of portrait vs. landscape hold you back. On a photoshoot, context helps make the call as to how to orient your photos. You can focus on the main subject and exclude everything else, emphasize the wide-open spaces, or try both perspectives.

Remember that you’re creating art to tell a story and elicit an emotion. Use the orientation that tells that story best.