APPENDIX 4

Aspect Ratio

Cedar Tree, Lebanon

Aspect Ratio

This photograph of a cedar tree has an aspect ratio of 1:1.22. It falls short of the Golden Mean ratio of 1:1.62.

A Train Called Mountain Thunder

David A. Page

The aspect ratio is the relation of height to width in the final image, or a frame of a camera’s image capture area. It is expressed in whole numbers and separated by a colon. For example, both 4×5 and 8×10 cameras have a shooting aspect ratio of 4:5. A standard 35mm film camera which has a 1 inch by 1.5 inch image capture area, is expressed as a 2:3 aspect ratio, which is perfect for a 4 inch × 6 inch print. When having prints made at a commercial facility, it is important to match the aspect ratio of the original file or negative to the intended printed image. For example, if someone has an 8×10 print made from a 35mm negative or file, the long ends of the image will be cropped off. To preserve the full-frame image of the original file, an 8×12 print is needed. When 8 and 12 are divided by 4, the resultant 2 and 3 become the same aspect ratio (2:3) as a 35mm camera’s format. With digital cameras the aspect ratio will vary depending upon the model of the camera.

Some photographers mistakenly believe that the photograph, once taken, should never be cropped. That fallacy is letting a tool (the camera) determine the composition of the final image. Even though the eye will naturally try to compose to the aspect ratio of the camera’s viewfinder, the subject and the photographer’s intentions should be the ultimate factors in deciding the final composition.

Steam Power 2010

David A. Page

Both images on these pages were taken with the same camera on the same day. The image to the left requires a 1:2 (panoramic) aspect ratio in order to dramatize the Mountain Thunder’s ability to haul heavy loads up the steep Allegheny Mountains. Cropping for a 1:2 aspect ratio also places greater emphasis on the subject by deleting unnecessary visual elements from the image. A 1:3 ratio would have allowed more of the train to show, but it would also reduce the size of the image on the page. As the photograph on the right is more about the power of steam engines in general, cropping to a more standard 2:3 aspect ratio worked better. That cropping emphasizes the steam billowing out of the stacks and under the engine and obscures most of the train and the engines identifiers, making the image all about steam power in general. The same subject captured with the same camera but finalized by using different aspect ratios makes two powerful but different presentations.

To increase the 1:1.45 aspect ratio of the bottom photo to that of the Golden Mean (upper photo), the sky was slightly cropped. Some might prefer the top photograph to the bottom one, even though the difference is small.