How to Post Landscape and Portrait Photos on Instagram Together

Trying to post a mix of landscape and portrait photos in an Instagram carousel feels like it should be simple, but it quickly turns into a cropping nightmare. You have a great collection of images - a wide scenic shot, a tall portrait, and a few detailed squares - but when you select them, Instagram forces everything into a single, awkward frame. This article provides a clear, step-by-step guide to bypass that frustration, allowing you to post both horizontal and vertical photos together in one seamless carousel post, no compromises necessary.

Why Instagram Crops Mixed-Orientation Photos in a Carousel

The root of the problem lies in how Instagram’s multi-photo posts are designed. When you create a carousel, the app locks the aspect ratio of the entire slideshow to the aspect ratio of the very first photo you select. This is a built-in limitation designed to create a smooth swiping experience, but it’s a major creative roadblock for photographers and content creators.

Here's how it plays out:

• If your first photo is a square (1:1 aspect ratio), every subsequent landscape or portrait photo will be automatically zoomed in and cropped to fit a perfect square. You might lose the top of someone's head or the beautiful edges of a landscape.
• If your first photo is a portrait (e.g., 4:5 aspect ratio), Instagram will force your wide, landscape shots into that tall frame, often cropping out the most important parts of the scene on the left and right.
• If your first photo is a landscape (e.g., 1.91:1 aspect ratio), your portraits will get cropped at the top and bottom, which is rarely flattering.

In short, you lose control. The carefully composed shot you took is re-framed by the app’s rigid rules. To get that control back, you need to prepare your photos before you ever open the Instagram app to post them.

The Universal Solution: Padding Your Photos to One Aspect Ratio

The most effective way to combine different photo orientations is to make them all share the same final dimensions before uploading them. You do this by adding borders - also known as padding or "letterboxing" - to make every image conform to a single, consistent size. For example, you can fit a wide landscape photo into a tall portrait frame by adding blank space (like white or black bars) above and below it.

Your goal is to decide on a destination aspect ratio for the entire carousel and then edit each photo to fit that frame. For maximum impact on the Instagram feed, the 4:5 aspect ratio (a vertical/portrait orientation) is the best choice. It takes up the most vertical screen real estate on a phone, grabbing more attention as someone scrolls. A common pixel dimension for this is 1080 pixels wide by 1350 pixels tall.

So, the strategy is simple: turn every photo in your carousel set - whether it’s a portrait, landscape, or square - into a 1080x1350 pixel image. Here are a few ways to do it.

Method 1: Using Free Mobile Apps for Quick Edits on the Go

For most people, editing right on their phone is the fastest and most convenient option. Dozens of free apps can handle this task easily. Apps like InShot, Canva, Snapseed, and Adobe Lightroom Mobile's export settings are all excellent choices. While the specific button names may vary, the process is fundamentally the same across all of them.

Step-by-Step Guide with a Mobile App

Let's walk through the universal steps. For this example, we'll imagine we're using an app like InShot, which is particularly good for this specific task.

1. Open the app and select your photo. Start a new project by importing the first image you want to edit. Let's say you're starting with a landscape photo.
2. Find the "Canvas" or "Ratio" tool. This is the most important step. Look for an icon or menu item labeled "Canvas," "Ratio," "Format," or "Size." Tapping this will bring up options for different social media platforms.
3. Set your canvas to 4:5. From the list of aspect ratios, choose 4:5. Instantly, you'll see your wide landscape photo centered inside a taller, vertical frame. The app will automatically add borders to the top and bottom to fill the space. Your portrait photos might already fit perfectly, or just require a slight pinch-and-zoom adjustment.
4. Customize your borders. Most apps default to adding white or black borders, which looks clean and professional. However, you can often customize this. You might find options to:
   • Choose a custom color for the border (perhaps one of your brand colors).
   • Use a blurred version of the photo itself as the background. This "blur" effect can look stylish and dynamic, creating a soft, textured border instead of a solid color.
   • Select a simple gradient fill.
   For a cohesive carousel, use the same border style for all the photos in your set. A consistent background helps tie the different images together visually.
5. Save the edited photo. Once you're happy with the framing, export the image to your camera roll in the highest quality available. You now have a landscape photo that is technically saved as a 4:5 portrait image.
6. Repeat for every image. Now, do the exact same process for every other photo you want in the carousel. Whether it's a square image or another portrait, run it through the app and ensure it's saved with the same 4:5 canvas settings.

Once you’ve saved all your edited photos, simply go to Instagram, create a new post, select your images, and you'll find they flow together perfectly in the carousel preview with no weird cropping.

Method 2: Using Desktop Software for Maximum Precision

If you prefer editing on a larger screen or use software like Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, or Canva's desktop app, you have even more control over the final result. The process is similar to the mobile method: you create a master canvas and fit each photo into it.

Step-by-Step Guide for Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop gives you pixel-perfect accuracy, which is great for brand consistency and getting every detail just right.

1. Create the master canvas. Don't open your photo first. Instead, create a new document by going to File >, New. Set the dimensions to 1080 pixels for the Width and 1350 pixels for the Height. Set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch, which is standard for web images.
2. Choose your background color. If your canvas background defaults to white, great. If transparent, create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N or Shift + Cmd + N) and drag it below your photo layers. Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill this layer with your desired border color (e.g., solid white, #FFFFFF).
3. Place your photo onto the canvas. Drag and drop your photo file onto the canvas or go to File >, Place Embedded and select your image. Photoshop will place it on a new layer.
4. Resize and position the photo.
   • For a landscape photo, it will appear with horizontal bars. Hold the Shift key (to maintain its original proportions) and drag the corners to scale it until its sides touch the edges of the 1080px canvas. Center it vertically.
   • For a portrait photo, you may want to scale it to fill the entire height of the 1350px canvas, allowing its sides to be cropped. Or, you can scale it down so it has vertical borders on the sides, depending on the look you want. Most people scale portraits to fill the 4:5 frame fully.
   • For a square photo, scale it to match the width of the canvas (1080px). It will have small borders at the top and bottom.
5. Export your final image. Once positioned, save your work. The best way to do this for the web is by going to File >, Export >, Save for Web (Legacy). Choose JPEG as the format and set the quality to around 70-80 for a good balance of quality and file size. Make sure the dimensions are still 1080x1350.
6. Rinse and repeat. Save each image for your carousel using this same template to ensure every slide is perfectly consistent.

Best Practices for Creating Engaging Mixed-Format Carousels

Now that you know how to mix orientations, here are a few tips to make your carousels more effective and visually striking.

1. Start with Your Most Compelling Image

The first slide is your digital storefront - it has to convince someone to stop scrolling and start swiping. Since your padded photos all share the same dimensions, you have the freedom to pick any image to lead the carousel, be it landscape or portrait. Choose the one that is most thumb-stopping, tells the most intriguing part of the story, or has the strongest visual composition.

2. Tell a Visual Story

Don't just upload a random gallery, use the carousel format to build a narrative. The ability to mix orientations is a powerful storytelling tool.

• Use a wide landscape shot to establish a sense of place or show the big picture.
• Follow up with vertical portrait shots to focus on a subject or capture emotional details.
• Weave in square shots for tightly-composed details, textures, or products.

Pacing is everything. By guiding the viewer from a grand scene to intimate details, you create a more engaging and immersive experience than a single photo ever could.

3. Maintain Cohesive Editing

To make the carousel feel like a single, unified piece of content, keep your editing style consistent across all the photos. This means using the same color grading, white balance, and contrast levels. Applying the same Lightroom preset or filter to all the images before padding them is a great way to achieve this. The consistent edit, combined with your matching borders, will make even the most varied set of photos look intentionally curated.

Final Thoughts

Posting landscape and portrait photos together in an Instagram carousel is entirely possible with a little prep work. By deciding on a universal aspect ratio - ideally the screen-hogging 4:5 - and using a simple app or desktop software to add borders, you regain full creative control over your images. This way, you can build dynamic, story-driven posts that showcase your photography without falling victim to Instagram's automatic crop.

Once you’ve put in the creative work editing your beautiful new carousel, the last thing you want to worry about is managing a scattered content calendar. At Postbase, we designed our visual planner specifically to take that stress away. Our intuitive calendar allows you to drag and drop all your scheduled content, see your entire strategy across all your platforms in one view, and plan cohesive visual series - like your brilliant new mixed-orientation carousels - far in advance. We handle the scheduling so you can stay focused on bringing your creative ideas to life.