I’m on a mission. A one-woman mission to rid the world of vertical video.
Yeah, I know – it hardly ranks up there with world hunger. But vertical video is driving me – and a lot of people who work with video – crazy!
What’s Vertical Video?
Vertical video is a relatively new phenomenon that took off when people started shooting video with their smart phones. As you know, we can shoot photos by holding a phone horizontally (landscape mode) or vertically (portrait mode). But it’s a different story with video!
Watch what happens when this person switches his phone from a horizontal position to vertical while shooting a waterspout.
See what just happened there?
Now some of you might be saying “But I can fix that in my editing program – I can rotate it so the waterspout is right side up!”
You’re right, you can. But here’s what a rotated video looks like on a screen or monitor:
Note the big black spaces on either side of the video. And the way the video shows only a tall, narrow slice of the scene. The screens we watch video on are horizontal.
No one explains “Vertical Video Syndrome” better than the online characters Glove and Boots. Watch this for a memorable lesson – and a good laugh!
How to Prevent Vertical Video
The solution is simple. Always hold your camera horizontally when shooting video!
If the subject/object of your shot doesn’t fit within the frame, you’ve got a couple of options:
- move further back
- get low to the ground and shoot on an upwards angle (not always flattering when you’re shooting people)
- do a slow tilt with the camera from top to bottom (or vice versa) to show the entire object
Do you have any video tips you’d like to share?
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