Hello, everyone!
Today, we're going to be talking about aspect ratios, what they are, how to use them
We're going to see some examples, and I'll tell you why I believe they are so important
and how they can completely transform the viewing experience of our images
The aspect ratio doesn't have anything to do with the size of our image, but the proportions
between the two sides of our photograph
as you know, most of my work, most of my images are square
so that means that the aspect ratio is 1:1, because both sides are the same length
but as of lately, during the last few months, I've been experimenting with other aspect ratios
usually big panoramas, I've also used the popular 3:2 in my book "Becoming an American"
so usually, we're going to have a subject in our image, using different aspect ratios we can change the position
of that subject within the frame
this way, by changing the aspect ratio, we can create more negative space around that subject
or we can remove it
Let's look at the 3:2 aspect ratio first
this is kind of a standard, it's one of the most common and popular aspect ratios
it comes from the 35mm film cameras, digital cameras just kept that aspect ratio
the sensors nowadays are, most of them, 3:2
even though you can change it in camera, or you can crop it afterwards
since it's the default aspect ratio of most cameras
that is the default aspect ratio for most of the photographs that we see today
a lot of people think is the most appealing aspect ratio because it's the closest to the golden ratio
and you can place your subject following the rule of thirds and still have a lot of negative space on the sides
to me, though, and I don't know if this is due to the popularity of this aspect ratio or something else
but the 3:2 images feel a lot like photographs, I think they are ideal for documentary photography
I don't like this aspect ratio as much to create more artistic images
That's why in the past I've experimented quite a bit with 5:4 or 4:3
Those are still rectangular images but they are closer to that square aspect ratio that I finally settled on
don't quote me on this, but 4:3 might be the most popular aspect ratio today
because most of the smartphones are 4:3, I believe...
also we have the micro 4/3 camera systems
In any case, these 2 aspect ratios give you some advantages from the 3:2, you can leave negative space on the sides
and play a little bit with the subject while still having a better balance, in my opinion, in the overall frame
but of course, my favorite aspect ratio by far is the square, 1:1, the Instagram ratio, right?
This is what Instagram was using when it got started, now you can post landscape and vertical photos
but at the beginning it was just square images and that's how many people got to know that aspect ratio
but it's actually been with us for a long time: Polaroid cameras were square, medium format cameras
like the Bronica or the Hasselblad, they were square as well, the Rolleiflex
all of those were square so the square format has been with us for a long time
what I like about it, and this is just my opinion, is that it creates more balanced images than other aspect ratios
it evokes calm, and the eye doesn't switch constantly from side to side like you might do with 3:2
with square images the eye usually goes directly to the subject and then you might go around the frame
I'm not really sure about this, I'm not an expert at how people look at those images
but I know what I do when I see a square image and the way my eyes kind of navigate the frame
it is very good for minimalistic images, and it favors a centered subject, so it gives it more importance in the frame
you can still create plenty of negative space, I like to play with layers or lines for this
diagonals work very well with the square images
I'm going to be showing you now or later a lot of those examples
you'll see that I play a lot with those lines in my images, because I think they work very, very well
I have a whole video about composing in square that you can check out here
Lastly, we get to panoramas
this is something I've been experimenting with a lot in the last few months
I don't follow any aspect ratio, I just crop the image to whatever feels right
sometimes it's 16:9, sometimes it's 30:9, whatever
it doesn't really matter, I'm just playing with it, just experimenting to see what I can create this way
what most photographers I know do when they create panoramas is they stitch together a bunch of vertical images
and that is fine if you want to print really big, but I don't do that
I create panoramas from just one single shot, there are many reasons for that
the first one is that I don't need huge files because my prints are not that big
and many times I'm photographing something, the subject is moving, or there is fog or clouds that are moving
and if I have to take a bunch of shots, the stitching is not going to work
so I just take a regular shot that is going to be 3:2 when I import it into Lightroom, and I just crop it to the aspect ratio
that I feel is going to work the best for that image
This leads us to a very important question : should we decide on the aspect ratio before taking the shot or after we take the shot?
as a rule of thumb, the more clear the image is in our mind when we press the shutter button, the better
because it's going to make our life much easier afterwards
but I see no problem, and I do it all the time, in changing our minds and changing the aspect ratio
and recomposing in post, that is totally fine as long as it works
For me, the editing part of photography can be as creative, if not more, than the actual shooting part
so hopefully I've convinced you to experiment with different aspect ratios
if you shoot 3:2, try 4:3, 5:4, or even square
try making panoramas, switch it up a little bit
anyway, this is all I had for today, I hope it was then useful
Thank you so much for watching again
and see you in the next one!