Should You Shoot Tall or Wide?

Of course, you can do both. There is an old saying: “When should you shoot a tall picture? Right after you shoot the wide one.” But, I can tell you that unless I’m shooting something where it really requires me to shoot vertically (like a really tall, thin waterfall, for example), I’m shooting wide pretty much all the time. The landscape genre, in general, is wide (after all, shooting wide is referred to as shooting in “landscape” orientation, and shooting tall is referred to as shooting in portrait orientation). But, I feel that shooting landscapes in landscape orientation gives me flexibility, since I can crop a wide image to make it a tall image, if necessary, but it’s rare that you can crop an image you shot vertically and make it into a successful wide image. So, while you can do both, if I were telling a friend how to shoot landscapes, I would say to shoot them wide for maximum flexibility (or unless, as I mentioned before, the subject requires you to shoot vertically).