Digital BW, The Print

On Aug 4, 2009, at 12:36 AM, Andrew Sharpe wrote:

> The submission guidelines includes this statement: "Only horizontal
> (landscape) orientation photographs are accepted".
>
> What an odd requirement! Many of my photographs are in portrait and
> square format. Is the format such an important consideration to
> *disallow* anything but landscape?
>
> Please explain this strange restriction.

I believe this is a less-than-creative method of assuring continuity  
between slides in a slideshow. As odd as such a restriction seems, I  
recently was teaching at a major workshop, where a big name instructor  
proclaimed to the students that images should always be shot in  
landscape mode: that was how people see, that is how TV and movies are  
shot, and it was how still photos should be shot. Had I not been a  
guest speaker in his class, I might have pointed out that books and  
magazines don't follow that rule, portraits don't follow that rule,  
and that such restrictions might make his life simpler (especially in  
assembling a student slideshow), but they would make my photography  
much less dynamic and creative. If a static frame for a slideshow is  
needed, and if the person determining it is biased towards landscape  
instead of neutral or vertical orientations, then I usually suggest  
matting all slides on a black background on the required size,  
proportion, and orientation, instead of proclaiming that the world is  
flat.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


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