From the first time an artist put paint to paper, a photograph was printed right through to the
first time a screen was manufactured... aspect ratios have been part of our lives and whether
we know it or not this has a lot to do with how we view our photographs now there's one aspect ratio
that's almost perfect for landscape photography that the internet hates can you guess which one
it is let me know in the comments below an aspect ratio normally comes in the form of two numbers
separated by a colon it's basically the width of your photo in relation to the height so a square
photo would have the same length along the top as it would down the side so one unit by one
unit or a one-to-one ratio so if I took a photo like this I might want it as a square photograph
if it was a much wider photograph where that width was twice that of the height if you broke it down
into squares there would be two squares side by side so it'd have two units along the top one
down the side hence a two to one aspect ratio so what about computer monitors and TVs well
currently they have an aspect ratio of 16 to 9. this is where it gets a bit more "mathsy" but it
follows the same rule if you overlay the grid of squares on your screen and had 16 along the top
you'd have nine of those squares down the side so it doesn't matter if the side is 16 pixels or
a million pixels it's determined by how big one side is compared to the other so the thumbnail
for this video was a 16x9 image my camera takes a three by two image and Instagram all started with
a one by one image now I'm not going to go into too much detail when it comes to cinema but they
have aspect ratios of 1.85 to 1 or 2.35 to 1 and this is why sometimes when you watch a movie at
home you'll have black strips along the top and the bottom first number normally relates to the
width and the second number normally relates to the height although you can buy a panorama
camera called a 6x17 those cameras use 120 film and that film is basically six centimeters tall
and that's where that number six comes from a 6x17 camera is basically a three to one Panorama camera
now a three by two photo will be longer along the top than down the side whereas a two by three
image will be shorter along the top than down the side so that's the two and this is the three
now you've already heard me mention landscape and portrait orientations these just get their names
from those genres of Photography Landscapes are normally big and wide hence you hold the camera
in a horizontal position whereas with portraits people are normally standing up so you get your
camera in a vertical position and the photograph is taller than it is wide now camera sensors also
have an aspect ratio and I've mentioned sensors already these are normally three by two in full
frame cameras and most crop sensored cameras although there are some exceptions now my a74
has a pixel count of 7008 by 4672 it's quite a random set of numbers but then if you divide
4672 by 7008 you get 0.66 which is basically 66 which is basically two-thirds hence three
to two aspect ratio most modern cameras have different options for aspect ratios and this
will show them on the back of your camera if you shoot jpegs these will be final and saved in that
aspect ratio but if you shoot raw files this is just an overlay that you can change later when
editing now if you're old enough to remember photo prints you'll remember that they came in a six by
four format this was basically the size in inches six inches by four inches if you half both of
those numbers that comes to three by two or three to two and that's the aspect ratio of those prints
this equates to the aspect ratio of 35 millimeter film and like I've already mentioned the same
aspect ratio as the sensor in a full frame camera so an aspect ratio can be calculated from anything
from your sensor to the TV to a photo print if you have a medium format camera like the Fuji
gfx this has a four to three aspect ratio sensor this is a common aspect ratio for medium format
cameras in general so it's four units by three units so slightly shorter and stockier than the
full frame aspect ratio this is a nice aspect ratio as it makes your photos look wider when
you have it in the portrait orientation I'll often crop my portrait oriented photos down to this as
it just seems to be a little bit more pleasing to my eye now if we go back in history a little bit
large format cameras had an aspect ratio of four to five and this is where those popular portrait
prints of 8x10 came from if you half eight by ten you get four by five or a four to five ratio when
it comes to that aspect ratio that really doesn't work online it's the Panorama it's the three to
one four to one or maybe a five to one Panorama I love shooting panoramas and if you've seen
any of my videos from last year where I'm out on location shooting Landscapes you'll know I love
a really good Panorama the problem is when these are viewed on a screen maybe like you're watching
on now it just doesn't work and it's even worse on phone screens you can cut the Panorama up into
smaller squares and then post them together so you can swipe through that Panorama but it still
doesn't do that image Justice the three to one Panorama has to be my all-time favorite aspect
appreciate check this one out with the mountain range that I took earlier in the
year it's absolutely fantastic and it looks so good in person when it's printed but it doesn't
look so good on a phone or it doesn't look so good on a computer screen as well and this is
the hardest thing about this video I'm trying to show you how good these panoramas can actually be
on a format that really doesn't show them off that well I actually love shooting Panorama so
much that I've been looking into getting a 6x17 camera which is basically that three to one format
I'd love it if one of the manufacturers actually made a sensor in that shape but they don't well
not that I know of one anyway if you know of one let me know in the comments below now the reason
that Panorama digital cameras don't exist is because of Photoshop it's so easy to take 10
photographs or however many photographs and Stitch them together into one big Panorama however that
makes it really hard when you're shooting in the field and you want to see what you've taken before
you go home you don't have that option and you have to kind of envisage what that image might
look like when you do get home and when you do start editing the reason I love this aspect ratio
is because of how it prints and how it looks when it's hung on the wall and you don't have to fill
the wall with a huge three by two print for it to look Grand you can get away with using less paper
and ink which will save you money giving you the option of printing bigger Nick card who's
a fantastic film Stills photographer talked about why he shoots a lot in this format in
one of his latest videos one of the biggest things he said that makes so much sense to me is that it
combines expansiveness with confinement all in one photograph so if you have a big landscape in front
of you you can shoot really wide and get that expansive landscape but you don't need to have the
sky or the foreground in that shot and it really makes what might be quite an average photograph
into an exceptional photograph when you get a good composition so the next time you're out instead of
just thinking about a landscape or a portrait orientation start thinking about panoramas and
when you do get a good one print it and hang it on your wall and you'll be so surprised at how Grand
that landscape looks now if you want to learn how to take a panorama it's a surprisingly easy
process and in this video I show you exactly how to do that I'll see you next time :-)