How to decide the aspect ratio of a photo?

thesandeep · Jan 26, 2011

Hi all,

I am Sandy.
I just started with photography basics using Fuji S1800. And I have started to take few shots of different compositions.

But during the post production work (on Adobe light room 3), I am not able to decide which aspect ratio I must crop or keep my picture.

My cam is taking the pics in 4:3 by default. But when I look over then in system they are looking little abnormal when compared with other people's photos.
Please suggest which aspect ratio I should maintain while taking pics or during the post production.

Thanks in advance.

Infidel · Jan 26, 2011

Well, 135 film (35 mm), if that's to be used as a standard, generally uses a 3:2 aspect ratio. That said, I would advise you to use whatever ratio uses all of the sensor pixels....the native aspect ratio, if you will. You can always crop the final image to the desired aspect ratio.

Infidel · Jan 26, 2011

Found this on the product website (link):

Number of recorded pixels Still image:
L: 4,000 x 3,000 (4:3) / 4,000 x 2,664 (3:2) / 4,000 x 2,248 (16:9)
M: 2,816 x 2,112 (4:3) / 2,816 x 1,864 (3:2) / 2,816 x 1,584 (16:9)
S: 2,048 x 1,536 (4:3) / 2,048 x 1,360 (3:2) / 1,920 x 1,080 (16:9)

Large image file, 4:3 aspect ratio uses the full 12.2MP.

Final choice of aspect ratio is a purely subjective choice.

KmH · Jan 26, 2011

thesandeep said:
Hi all,

I am Sandy.
I just started with photography basics using Fuji S1800. And I have started to take few shots of different compositions.

But during the post production work (on Adobe light room 3), I am not able to decide which aspect ratio I must crop or keep my picture.

My cam is taking the pics in 4:3 by default. But when I look over then in system they are looking little abnormal when compared with other people's photos.
Please suggest which aspect ratio I should maintain while taking pics or during the post production.

Thanks in advance.

Most P&S cameras have the 4:3 aspect ratio. (4x3, 8x6, or 3x4 and 6x8 if vertical)
Most dSLR's have a 3:2 aspect ratio and the most common prints are 3:2 aspect ratio.(6x4, 9x6, or 4x6 and 6x9 if vertical)

8x10's are the 5:4 aspect ratio and 5x7's are 7:5.

Each aspect ratio is a differently shaped rectangle.

Ron Evers · Jan 26, 2011

I shoot 4/3 (native) & crop a copy to the aspect ratio of what I want to print at.

Studio7Four · Jan 26, 2011

The aspect ratio to use depends on the final (print) usage and the composition of the image. For instance, I occasionally work with models. For my portfolio I crop to 11x14 (a general standard for "fashion" photographers) and for the model's portfolio I crop to 8x10 (a model's standard book size). Similarly, even if you are just printing at home, a 4x6 and a 5x7 are different aspect ratios; I'm enough of a control freak that I prefer to crop to 5x7 myself rather than let the print house select which portion of the native ratio image (3:2, which aligns with a 4x6 print) to print.

Alternatively, sometimes these standard ratios just don't leave you with the strongest image. You may have to crop too tightly and lose a strong portion of the image, or you may end up leaving superfluous space in the shot. In these cases it's perfectly fine to crop to whatever makes for the strongest image and then custom mat/frame it, or add black (or white) bars as needed to bring it back to a standard size.

Of course, this only applies to cropping for printing (or other display). Until you have a defined display and a reason to crop it, leave the dimensions alone - keep all the pixels until you absolutely need to crop some out. And even then I usually crop and save that version seperately, leaving the original intact in case I want to crop differently later. Just like with cutting lumber, it's easy to take more off but impossible to put back what's been removed.