Why are our cameras and pictures we take by default landscape (wide) and not portrait (tall)? To take a portrait picture we turn the camera.. why not the other way around? Our typing papers are portrait and our books we read are portrait, but why not the cameras?
2007-01-01 06:39:21 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
why are our eyes landscape?
same reason.
we can see 170 deg landscape and about 80 deg portrait
2007-01-01 06:46:15 · answer #1 · answered by Dimitris C. Milionis - Athens GR 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The folks are correct that the "landscape" digital camera sensor or film exposure better matches a human's field of vision.
Some cameras have second shutter buttons that fit under the finger when held in the portrait position. Yet other cameras utilize film or digital sensors with different aspect ratios, i.e. a 6x6 camera that produces a square image. Besides, us "dumb" American consumers (as another poster mentioned) seem to be doing just fine with turning the camera sideways.
Several cameras now sense when the camera is in the portrait position and automatically rotate the picture for you. I guess they could produce other models that do the same thing but are made for portrait pictures and then sense when you take a landscape however you are right back in the same situation of having to turn the camera. Larger square image sensors fix that problem but they are still expensive... give it time.
2007-01-01 18:53:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't forget that many "pro" cameras are SQUARE format. In fact, my first 620 film camera was square format and that was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye in the 1950's. Not that this matters to your question, though...
I think I'd go along with the answers saying that it just matches our normal field of view. Makes sense to me.
One technical aspect not to overlook, though, would be that for any given width of film, you can have a larger negative in the landscape format than in portrait format, so it would give a sharper image. There are cameras designed the other way, though.
2007-01-01 19:22:58 · answer #3 · answered by Jess 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To match our two eye vision. Typing papers and books are portrait but lines printed on it are not.
2007-01-01 14:48:06 · answer #4 · answered by mangal 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sure, but why not offer it/market it to consumers? We all know how dumb american consumers are. They kill themselves by eating fast food and driving cars without safety devices like airbags, and then sue the company when they spill hot coffee on themselves. Anyway, that is another question, it could be a button that you press to change from landscape to portrait, to frame the picture, inside the viewfinder...
2007-01-01 15:44:23 · answer #5 · answered by Maine Landscapes 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Those other guys seem right. I just dropped by because that was a damned interesting question, however simple!
2007-01-01 14:51:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
depends on how I hold mine!
beaux
2007-01-01 16:17:53 · answer #7 · answered by beauxPatrick 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋