As the title states, this is a very simple tool that can, sometimes, drastically change how your image feels and the impact it has on the viewer: Rotation.

While it’s most often used in abstracts, this first example is pretty clearly a staircase and wide enough to give you a sense of place. The person in the shot also adds to the sense of place and scale. The first version below is how I shot the image, processed and posted for years…

For some reason I reposted on Facebook and Michael messaged saying something like “um, shouldn’t that image be rotated vertically?”. Despite often rotating my images, in this instance, it had never occurred to me. So, I tried it. And, much to my reluctance in admitting he was right…with heavy sighs, he was, lol.

More impact, right? God, I hate being wrong. But, seriously, sometimes others see something in our images that we don’t, that can make it better. It’s also a reminder to keep an open mind and try different things with our images; no matter how simple.

The next example is purely abstract and the type of shot where playing with rotation is far more common. In my opinion, each orientation works, it really depends on your preference for something like this.

Or, placed like this it creates this interesting circular motion I never would have noticed without this post. Huh, always new ways to consider showing your images!

The point is to keep an open mind and play around with your images. Particularly when working with abstracts. The whole basis of abstracts is to take something out of context, to turn your subject into something else entirely and make your viewer question what it is they’re looking at. So often we get caught up in playing by the rules of photography. However, to be creative and make something artistic you may have to break a few of those rules. That’s the fun in it; hearing others interpretations of what you’ve created can be very interesting.