I was taught (by myself and things I read/listened to) that the portrait (and a person in it) always "look better" when the photograph is taken vertically. The subject IS vertical and if their face doesn't need visual widening, then their necks look longer, their cheeks look smaller and what not...
Of course it all can be defined by lighting too, but here I wanted to make just a small point of choosing a vertical head shot over horizontal and the other way around.
Last week I spoke to a film producer Mark Gasper who owns Yankee Oriole company and is by the way very sweet and supporting, and asked him what he looks at when he sees a head shot being sent in by an actor to get a job. And he touched on the whole vertical/horizontal thing for me with a perspective that left no further questions: film producer may actually prefer the horizontal, because that's how the actor will look on their film, and motion pictures are never vertical!
So, that's that. I was all "duh!" of course, but then decided to look into it with all seriousness and take everything into consideration. Just in case if I'm missing another strong point like that. Vertical versus Horizontal will alter the message/mood/feeling of a photograph, and composition rules apply, but do you know of any other situation where the viewer prefers vertical shot over horizontal and vice versa?
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