Choosing a
composition is often the key to understanding between good landscape
photography and excellent landscape photography. But the aspect ratio of the
photo can create or destroy the composition, emphasize the object and eliminate
distractions, or unbalance the whole picture. When you look into the viewfinder
and are about to press the shutter button, it’s useful to try to imagine the
final shot, including its aspect ratio, to optimize the composition.
by Andrew
But how does aspect ratio affect the composition?
Aspect ratio
is a term used to describe the size of an image by comparing width with height
and expressing it as a ratio.
The aspect
ratio of the images is primarily determined by the dimension of the camera
sensor (or by the type of film plus the design of the camera if the camera is
film). Since these physical aspects are fixed, it is easy to take the aspect
ratio of images for granted and do not particularly think about the
consequences of their established ratio, which is used in the composition.
Camera
makers realized that sometimes photographers like to work with a wide range of
options, and the latest digital cameras allow you to change the aspect ratio
setting using the camera menu. You can also crop the image so that you can
change the setting during post-processing.
Why aspect ratio matters
The
significance of this concept is related to the ratio of the main object to the
sides of the frame and the amount of free space around the object .
Knowing the
aspect ratio of your particular camera can help create better images. It will
also help you recognize when cropping to a different aspect ratio can improve
the composition of the resulting image.
What is the aspect ratio?
Aspect ratio
describes the relationship between the width and height of the image. It is
written as a figure, in this form - width: height (width is always in the first
place).
Almost every
digital camera is equipped with a sensor in one of two image formats.
3: 2
This ratio
is used by 35 mm crop factor cameras and full-frame SLR cameras, some Leica
medium format cameras, mirrorless cameras, high-end compact cameras and most 35
mm film cameras.
We have had
it since, at the beginning of the last century, Leica launched the first 35 mm
film cameras. The 35mm crop factor cameras and full-frame SLRs have a 3: 2
aspect ratio. The width of the sensor is 1.5 times its height.
The 35mm
full-frame image sensor measures 36x24 mm. You can express this as a 36:24
ratio. Mathematicians always like to simplify the relationship between two
numbers so that it is easy to visualize. In this case, you can divide both
dimensions into twelve. This gives 3: 2. Crop factor cameras have smaller
sensors approximately 22.5x15 mm in size (exact sizes vary by make and model).
These numbers correspond to a 3: 2 aspect ratio for a full-frame sensor.
4: 3
This aspect
ratio is used by microcams, many compact cameras, some medium format digital
cameras and medium format film cameras using a 6x4.5 cm format.
Let's
compare them. You can see that the 3: 2 format used by most digital SLR cameras
is slightly longer than 4: 3 for micro cameras.
This may not
seem so significant, but it is important for the composition. Look at the
following images to see why. Below is a photograph of the original 35 mm
version with an aspect ratio of 3: 2.
And here is
the same image, cropped to a 4: 3 aspect ratio , as if it were shot on a 4: 3
micro camera.
See the
difference? She is thin, however, is still present. 35 mm frame longer. And the
task can be quite difficult when it comes to composition, because you have to
find a way to effectively fill that length. Landscape photography, in
particular, often benefits from a shorter frame, and this is one of the reasons
for the popularity of the medium format 6x7 cm (aspect ratio 7: 6) among
landscape photographers who use film cameras. This is how the same landscape
will look in the following formats.
The aspect
ratio of 7: 6 may seem too short, but 5: 4 is a very nice format for work.
It may seem
to you that the difference between the proportions does not have any particular
significance. And often, when you use landscape format (i.e. a camera
positioned so that the frame is horizontal), the difference is minimal. It is
not so difficult to work in any of the above formats.
But switch
to portrait format (vertical frame), and that will be a completely different
story. A 35mm frame suddenly becomes much harder to efficiently fill, and
composition often benefits from cropping to a shorter rectangle. Below you see
some examples to demonstrate this effect.
The
difficulty the photographer encountered in shooting the landscape was that
there were too many empty skies in the original image. The problem was solved
by cropping. A 4: 5 aspect ratio seems to work well.
Of course,
not all images will benefit from cropping to a shorter rectangle. But if it’s
hard for you to fill out the frame, especially if you have a 35 mm camera with
an aspect ratio of 3: 2, then you can very well benefit from using a different
frame format.
Camera aspect ratio adjustment
Many modern
digital cameras give you the ability to adjust the aspect ratio using the
camera menu. If your camera has an electronic viewfinder , it can display a
cropped image in it.
If your
camera does not have an electronic viewfinder, you will need to use the Live
View mode to use the aspect ratio function. The camera will display the cropped
image on the camera’s LCD screen.
You should
know that if you use the JPEG format, the camera will crop the image, and you
will not be able to recover the cropped part of the image. If you use RAW, the
camera will save the image captured by the entire sensor, and you will be able
to decide on cropping during subsequent processing. Check the details in the
camera manual if you have any doubts.
Postprocessing Framing
It is often
easier to crop a frame during subsequent processing. If your camera does not
have an aspect ratio function, this remains the only option. Another advantage
of this method is that you can revert to old images to understand which is
better.
Now consider
each format in more detail.
1: 1 - square
The square
format can often be used to simplify the image and give the subject a striking
presence in the center of the frame. If you leave the width equal to the
height, the viewer’s method of reading the photograph will change, since the
need to move around the frame from left to right will be less.
The square
format provides a good opportunity to break the rules that we so often observe
- position the horizon along the center of the image or place the object in the
center of the frame, and the composition can only become stronger. You will
often see a 1: 1 aspect ratio used to emphasize minimalism (again, to the issue
of simplification).
A 1: 1
aspect ratio is used to add simplicity to this image.
4: 3 - 4/3 format
This format
is the default image format for cameras that use 4: 3 sensors. The image is
rather wide than high, which means that the eye naturally stretches to move
through the image from left to right.
Given that
the image is quite high relative to its width, this ratio is ideal for
directing the view into the picture through leading lines out of foreground interest.
The relative height of the image promotes the use of wide-angle focal lengths
to capture the depth of the picture in the image without capturing unnecessary
details at the edge of each frame.
4: 3 format
allows you to capture close details of the foreground and leading lines to get
a look inside the image
Format 6: 4 - 35 mm (also called 3: 2)
This is the
default image format for 35 mm film and therefore for the full-frame and APS-C
sensors used on most Nikon / Canon cameras. The width of the image is much
larger than the height, which, again, encourages the viewer to read the image
from left to right, and diagonal guide lines can again help.
A limitation
of this aspect ratio is that the height is much smaller than the width, and
therefore, capturing foreground details with a wide-angle lens becomes more
difficult due to limited vertical working space. This can lead to the fact that
the objects in the frame become too fragmented and, therefore, lose their
influence.
The 6: 4
ratio may, however, be the format that is suitable for shooting scenes in which
there is little or no foreground interest with mid-range focal lengths (for
example, 35 mm).
A 6: 4
aspect ratio is used here, since the foreground details are not fixed, but the
scene still has a wide aspect
16: 9 - widescreen panoramic format
This format
was supported in film by the Advanced Photo System (APS) when it appeared and
recently has become more popular due to the predominance of displays with an
aspect ratio of 16: 9 in home use - televisions, computer monitors, mobile
devices.
In this
format, the image width is dominant, which means that moving the viewer's gaze
from the foreground is difficult, but this format is ideal for representing
fragments of landscape pictures taken with a large focal length (i.e. using
zoom lenses) at a distance.
A wide and
narrow 16: 9 format was used here to emphasize horizontal stripes of color
12: 6 or 18: 6 - panoramic format (also called 2: 1 or 3: 1)
The 12: 6,
or 18: 6 format was chosen as panoramic here for several reasons. Both 2: 1 and
3: 1 seem to be fairly well supported in panoramic images. 2: 1 is a panoramic
format supported by a number of medium format film cameras, and 3: 1 is APS.
Typically, panoramic ratios are used to represent the result of connecting two
or more images.
It is quite
difficult to capture an image with an aspect ratio of 3: 1 from one frame, and
it will be large enough for printing at any significant size - and often in
order to be stitched together with another frame, the picture will be taken
using a longer focal length so that highlight details away from the landscape.
There is no real opportunity to include foreground details in this case.
An
ultra-wide 18: 6 (3: 1) image format was used to represent this panorama of 7
connected images shot using a focal length of approx. 140 mm
Portrait mode
In order for
the landscape shot to work, it is necessary to balance the composition
throughout the frame, and the aspect ratio, for example 6: 4, makes this task
difficult because of the too high height relative to its width.
To make the
portrait landscape perfect, thicker rectangles with an aspect ratio of 4: 3, 7:
6 or 5: 4 are suitable, and 5: 4, in turn, is actively used by professional
landscape photographers for medium and large format cameras. These formats
allow you to look at the image, as before, from left to right, without
excessively large space allotted under the sky, taking the frame out of
balance.
From left to
right: 6: 4, 4: 3, 5: 4. Which one looks better?
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