What is your favourite aspect ratio?

StigHagen · Nov 15, 2010

Hi!

What is your favourite aspect ratio? I don't want to limit the discussion to negative format, since it is possible to crop negatives. Also I believe some have several favourites depending on subject matter. Please make a list.

I calculate the aspect ratio the following way:
long side / short side = aspect ratio
eg. for 4x5" film: 5 / 4 = 1.25

Since I'm in Europe I find 4x5 LF format to be a little off with standard frames, so I'm actually going from 1.25 ratio to 1.33 by cropping my negs a bit. And actually I like the European format a lot

mikebarger · Nov 15, 2010

Steve Smith · Nov 15, 2010

I also like 1:1 but I like panoramic 2:1 and 3:1 too.

Steve.

brian steinberger · Nov 15, 2010

1.00. Square is wonderful. For rectanlge I prefer 1.33.

Jerevan · Nov 15, 2010

1.00 or 1.38 (which in practical terms is 6x6 or 13x18 cm in my case).

Steve, any progress on your 2:1 camera, BTW?

Removed Account2 · Nov 15, 2010

24x36 which is uncropped 35mm : 1:1,5

John Koehrer · Nov 15, 2010

1.618003

dehk · Nov 15, 2010

3.1415926535

Sirius Glass · Nov 15, 2010

Depends on what I am doing. Sometimes 1:1.5; sometimes 1:1 sometimes 1:1.25; sometimes 2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572...

Steve

36cm2 · Nov 15, 2010

1, unless I'm feeling really adventurous, in which case it's 1 with a 90 degree twist. Leo

ROL · Nov 15, 2010

1.67 by your reckoning (3:5, mine), depending almost entirely on the image. My thoughts...

removed account4 · Nov 15, 2010

1.571428571429

tkamiya · Nov 15, 2010

I let the image tell me but usually settle on either 4:5 or 2:3.

BradS · Nov 15, 2010

I have an ongoing, highly volatile love affair with the square.

I'm generally too lazy (or unconcerned) to crop so, neg format == print format which is either 1.0, 1.25 or 1.4. When I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go for a 1.571428571429 but, I avoid 1.61803398875 like the plague (it's cliche!).

lxdude · Nov 15, 2010

dehk said:
3.1415926535

Which kind?

SMBooth · Nov 16, 2010

This begs the question, should you shoot and crop to fixed ratios or crop to what you feel is best and bugger the ratio.

Steve Smith · Nov 16, 2010

36cm2 said:
1, unless I'm feeling really adventurous, in which case it's 1 with a 90 degree twist. Leo

That's just crazy. Have you tried a 180 degree twist? I did with my Rolleicord a few weeks ago to get a shot over a tall fence.

Steve.

panchro-press · Nov 16, 2010

6X9 and 5X7...you do the math.
Dave

benjiboy · Nov 16, 2010

I crop according to the individual image, I prefer 6X6 because it's easy to crop either to portrait or landscape format.

Bruce Watson · Nov 16, 2010

For a while I was a fan of capturing my composition regardless of aspect ratio. I found in printing that my prints tended to fall into a few different aspect ratios within small. So I measured them to find out what they were (and had to do some research to interpret the results).

Turns out that I "see" in just a few aspect ratios. One is 4:3, which fits fairly nicely on my 5x4 film. Then there's the golden ratio ((1 + sqrt(5))/2, or 1:1.618, which works out to about 5x3. And there's a panoramic ratio I see in sometimes, about 1:sqrt(5), or about 1:2.24, or about 5x2.25

Having found this out, and also facing the problems of printing and framing if each print is a custom size, I've started to limit my prints to one of these three aspect ratios. And it's working out just fine, and simplifying my printing/framing too.

I have no idea why it works out like this for me. The human mind is a mysterious place.

Ian Grant · Nov 16, 2010

There's more than one number there Dave so it's plural even as an abbreviation "maths"

In no order of preference:
1:1
1:1.25
1:2.83

Ian

StigHagen · Nov 16, 2010

SMBooth said:
This begs the question, should you shoot and crop to fixed ratios or crop to what you feel is best and bugger the ratio.

I always crop if I find it serves the image well. Though in a perfect world I would like the image to match standard frame sizes by having standard ratio

StigHagen · Nov 16, 2010

ROL said:
1.67 by your reckoning (3:5, mine), depending almost entirely on the image. My thoughts...

thanks for your thoughts, nice article...

Sirius Glass · Nov 16, 2010

Steve Smith said:
36cm2 said:

1, unless I'm feeling really adventurous, in which case it's 1 with a 90 degree twist. Leo

Click to expand...

That's just crazy. Have you tried a 180 degree twist? I did with my Rolleicord a few weeks ago to get a shot over a tall fence.

Steve.

Ok, that is it! I have had enough of this ratio stuff so I am going to do a 360º and get out of here.

Steve

keithwms · Nov 16, 2010

Sirius Glass said:
Ok, that is it! I have had enough of this ratio stuff so I am going to do a 360º and get out of here.

Steve

Actually I have a very nice rig to do 360

What is your favourite aspect ratio?

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