This is something I've wondered about for a while but never saw discussed anywhere. When you shoot a vertical shot (portrait mode) how do you hold your camera, left hand on top or right hand on top? Does handedness matter? Or anything else?

My wife and I are both right handed. I shoot with my right hand on top cradling the camera in my left hand. She does the opposite.

I'd love to hear how the shooters here do it and and theories as to why people do it differently.

D

I fail to see the benifit of shooting that way. Note, that all televisions are landscape, so when you use a vertical shot in a project, you will have black bars on both sides.
Furthermore, when you shoot that way, you may be diagnosed to suffer from the infamous "Vertical Video Syndrome". :-)

I think Dennis is referring to taking stills.

Indeed, I'm talking about stills.

D

Do they have aftermarket battery grips for these camera with an extra shutter button? The extra weight of the battery grip plus the vertical shutter button is really comfortable on my Canon T2i for shooting portrait orientation without twisting your wrist. And the aftermarket grip didn't cost that much at all.

In the rare case I shoot vertically (like years ago), I shot with hand on top.

It's off topic but in this day and age, why bother shooting vertical when you can shoot it landscape for use in video and crop the few you want to print portrait? It strikes me as an artifact of history from the days of film and prints. Does the extra little vertical resolution in a portrait shot really matter? Going the other way of cropping a portrait into a landscape loses a ton of resolution and content/perspective.

If your intended use is for video I'd agree that shooting vertically has no benefits but during the past years filming weddings I have seen many photogs often shooting vertically with their hand on top.

Yes, hand on top, but Denis was asking which hand. And I think it's usually left, for one reason, feels more natural to rotate clockwise.

Maybe things are different in Oz but up here, the shutter is on the right side. Left hand is used to spin the rings and support. So ... right hand on top.

Maybe things are different in Oz but up here, the shutter is on the right side. Left hand is used to spin the rings and support. So ... right hand on top.

Absolutely!

I think we have an answer: whichever feels more comfortable.

Well, obviously people are going to do what's more comfortable. I'm just interested in which way is more comfortable.

Also, does handedness matter? So far I don't think anyone has mentioned whether they are right or left handed. I'd like to see if there is any correlation between handedness and which hand is on top.

Hi

When taking vertical photographs, having a battery grip helps a lot. I have one with my Gh3 and it has an additional shutter button so you can just shoot the way you do it horizontally. Much more comfortable for portraits than having your arm all the way around the camera