"Better" image scaling?

[doublep]

I have an image element that is used to display user-uploaded images. I.e. I have no idea what the image would be like in advance. No matter how I try to scale the element, it looks ugly in some cases.

 

* If I use e.g. 200x200 and default scaling mode (retain shape), there is a lot of unused whitespace above and below landscape fotos, as they are downscaled to something like 200x130. Panorama fotos would be even worse.

 

* If I set dimensions to 200x1 and scaling mode to "real size", it becomes great for landscape. But then portrait fotos take too much space, as they are downscaled to e.g. 200x340 (way too high). If someone uploads a vertical comic strip, it will be even worse.

 

Is there a way to achieve something in between? I.e. so that there is no unused vertical space, yet images are limited in height?