Do you consider whether to hold your camera horizontally or vertically before you take a photo? Some people always hold their camera the same way, never changing the angle of their composition. This leads to badly framed photos and ones that certainly wouldn’t look good framed, enlarged or as canvas prints.

When taking your photos, the way in which you hold your camera should be the most basic of composition choices, but it is one that is often over-looked.

Making this decision will also help you to move closer to your subject, which improves the quality of your image.

If you’re able to frame your subject vertically within the viewfinder (portrait format) then you should always take the photo that way. If you can’t, rather than move backwards, move the camera to take a horizontal (landscape) photograph.

As a rule of thumb, if you are photographing just one or two people you should use a portrait composition, but if there are more people in the picture you should take a landscape photo.

There obviously times when you may want to deviate from this rule, such as when you take a photo of a single subject with a spectacular landscape behind them. Then you may want to take a horizontal photo, but obviously it is the background that dominates this decision.

The important thing to remember when choosing your ration however is to move the camera before you move your subject or yourself. If you can frame the shot without moving further away you should do that because it means you’ll be closer to your subject, and that makes for better photographs.