Best Aspect Ratio For Photography

In this video, You will learn how aspect ratio impacts your photography when it comes to getting prints made. With the information in this video, you will be able to make the best choice when using a particular aspect ratio. Know what size prints you will obtain by using the correct aspect ratio.

So have you ever tried to have photos printed and it comes back and has white bars on the side, or on the top, or all the way around, or you wanted to put a photo that you took from your camera and put it on Instagram or some other social media site, and you just couldn’t crop it right, it just didn’t look right? Or maybe you wanted canvas prints. And most of the people in the photo looked right, in the center, but then anybody who was on the side, their arm got folded over with the canvas, or their leg? Well in this video, I’m gonna help you solve that problem with some knowledge about something called aspect ratios.

There are many facets to the art of composition, but one you may not have thought about very much is aspect ration. Aspect ratio is a term used to describe the ratio between the width and height of a photo. The reason aspect ratio is often ignored is quite simple. The aspect ratio of your photo depends on the camera you use, and we tend to take that for granted. So again, aspect ratio is the ratio between the width and height of your photo. Awareness of the characteristics of aspect ratio of your particular camera will help you compose better images. It also helps you recognize that when you crop to a different aspect ratio, it’ll help you compose better images. As mentioned before, aspect ratio deals with the width and the height. It basically describes how square or wide an image is. Whether it’s 1:1, or 16:9. So here, we’re going to talk about aspect ratio as it deals with the photo, not about sensor size. So depending on what camera you have, it will allow you to choose aspect ratios, and some cameras only have two aspect ratios like 3:2, or 16:9. Others have 1:1, 3:2, 4:3, and so on. So, it’s gonna depend on what camera you have. So let’s get into some examples of what we’re talking about here, when we use aspect ratio in photography considerations. Some cameras, like I have a Canon 5D Mark III. And my aspect ratio menu allows me to select 3:2, 4:3, 16:9, and 1:1. So not all cameras have all those options. Most just have 16:9 or 3:2. We’re gonna go from Lightroom to a photo ordering site at, gonna use Costco’s page, just to show you the different effect that aspect ratio has on the crop of your photo. So here, I took four photos at four different aspect ratios. And I just wanted to show you what they look like, and point out the photo width and height. Which in this case, it’s 3840 x 3840. So this is a 1:1 ratio. This is a 5760 x 3240, which is a 16:9. Here is a 5120 x 3840, which is a 4:3. You can tell that sides were more cropped in from the 16:9. And this is pretty much a setting that’s in every camera, it’s a 3:2, which is 5760 x 3840. The width and height is gonna be different for your camera, but it’s the aspect ratio which is, as we said, the ratio between the length and the height of your photo. So here’s some of the common aspect ratios that you’ll see in use today. 3:2 or 1.5 aspect ratio is common across DLSRs and Mirrorless cameras. 4:3 aspect ratio or 1.33 is good for magazines, prints, and smartphones. 5:4 aspect ratio or 1.25 is common in large and medium format cameras. 16:9 or 1.8 aspect ratio, good for computer screens and video. So these are some of the common aspect ratios that you’ll run into for printing and for some of your cameras, and video. So here we have just a couple of print sizes and what their aspect ratio is. So you can see that for the common print sizes, they all have different aspect ratios. And that is gonna show up when you go to print. So, just to give you an idea of what the few print sizes here show, is that for instances, if you want an 8 x 10 or 16 x 20, your aspect ratio needs to be 5:4 without having any cropping going on. Now you can print any size you want, but if it’s 8 x 10 or 16 x 20, 5:4 aspect ratio will get you no cropping involved here at all. So a large print like a 20 x 30, is a 3:2 aspect ratio. So here are the dimensions of the photographs that I showed you in Lightroom. This is how I came up with the calculation as to what is aspect ratio of each of those photos. So this is kind of how you would make that determination if you knew the dimensions of your photo. And by this calculation, it will show you what your aspect ratio is. Once you know your aspect ratio, you know what to expect if say, you’re going to send these photos to get printed. You’re gonna know, okay, I know with this aspect ratio, these are the sizes that I’m going to be able to print with no cropping issues. And if you have cropping issues, well at least you know why. The why being if you have a different aspect ratio, and that aspect ratio doesn’t work out to be a print size, you know why you’re going to have to crop, and that’s okay. So there’s various tools that’ll help you either crop or prepare a photo for to send to print. In this case, I’m using Lightroom. And the dimensions of this photo, it is a 3:2 aspect ratio. And here in Lightroom, if I take this over to the print module, so here’s an example of a photo that is 3:2 aspect ratio. Now, you can see here that it’s got these white bars on the side. It’s not completely filling. This could be okay if you wanted an 8 x 10, but how you would deal with these white bars is something else, a different video or you know, if you were going to put this is a frame, there are ways to deal with that. Let’s see, in order for that print to be 8 x 10, this photo would’ve had to been a 5:4 aspect ratio. In other words, to get rid of those bars. Since this is a 3:2 aspect ratio, what actually works the best is a 12 x 8 or an 8 x 12 photo. So this would print the best. You see there’s no bars on either side. And no feet are cut off. So if you had a question about this, what you can do is do the math and find the lowest common denominator of this. It is three over two, so it’s a 3:2 aspect ratio. So that’s why that works for this photo, 8 x 12 works. And say I was on a photo ordering site. Say if I didn’t have Lightroom and I just uploaded my photo to an ordering site here like Costco, you can see by default, they had 4 x 6. And there’s no crop warning, but if I come over here and try and apply a 8 x 10 to this, this means I have a crop warning. So see, it’s going to, on the Costco side, it’s going to try and make me force this crop right here, and for an 8 x 10, and that’s gonna cut off her foot and her head. See, if I apply that crop, that’s the way it’s gonna look. So you know it’s not gonna work because this photo was a 3:2 aspect ratio. We’re trying to make it an 8 x 10, which is not a 3:2 aspect ratio. So that’s kinda how you would figure it out. Say you didn’t have Lightroom or any other tool, at least you’re gonna know why you had the crop. Like I said, you can print anything if you’re satisfied with the crop. So back here to Lightroom and, here’s an example of a photo where we have a wedding party here. And everybody’s getting in the photo. So in this photo, the dimensions of the photo, it is a 3:2 aspect ratio dividing 5376 x 3668, you get 1.5 which is a 3:2 aspect ratio. So you can kinda get an idea if you come into the crop tool and select different aspect ratios as to how a crop is going to effect this. So 1:1, see, everybody gets cut off. If I go to a 3:2 aspect ratio, literally, nothing happens, I mean, it moved a little bit. But nothing got cut off on the sides, which our calculation said it is a 3:2 aspect ratio. 4:3 aspect ratio, how does that look? People on the sides, their shoulders are getting cut off. 16:9, tops and bottoms got cut off. But if I wanted a 5 x 7 print of this. Not bad, you’re gonna have a little bit of cropping. So we’re starting to see the problem is when you take your 3:2 aspect ratio you set in your camera, and you try to print a 5 x 7, or 8 x 10, or 16 x 20, for those sizes, you can’t not have cropping issues. So one tip is you have to be mindful of the composition. So if you’re shooting this for a client, you should probably shoot multiple images so that the client can choose from. Shoot some images that are pulled back and some images that are close, because you never know what crop is gonna work. So it’s really best, in this case, yes, we’re conditioned really, to fill the frame. For a long time, people tell you, fill the frame, crop close. But if you’re gonna send it off for printing, one of the biggest tips is leave space around your photo just in case you need to crop. So again, if we didn’t have Lightroom as a tool to kinda give us an idea, if this family wanted a 16 x 20, here we have a crop warning and you can see how much we’re gonna lose on this photo. Again, it’s okay, but you know why this is happening. It’s not the same aspect ratio. So the other tip is here, in some cases you might not know what aspect ratio is needed, say for a client, so you might shoot in several, depending on if your camera has those settings. So another tip, how would you go about picking the right aspect ratio? Well, in some cases, if you’re a professional photographer, you would pick according to the delivery format. Or if you had the luxury of picking the camera that will allow you to shoot in the aspect ratio you like, it’s another way to pick the aspect ratio. If you can’t find a camera with the aspect ratio, then pick one that will allow you to crop one of the sides, so that you get the aspect ratio you want. So the answer to the question, what’s the best aspect ratio for photography? Well, it’s gonna depend on what aspect ratio you’re camera allows you to use. Also, if you’re just shooting for yourself, and your camera allows 3:2 aspect ratio, choose that. And then, pull back or zoom out to allow more room around your subject in case you need to crop for different aspect ratios or sizes of prints. If you’re a working photographer, it’s gonna depend on your client and whatever delivery aspect ratio that they request. If you’re shooting for a magazine, they’re gonna tell you what aspect ratio they want. If you’re creating a wedding album or certain size prints for your client, it’s gonna depend, there again, on the aspect ratio that you choose. Your aspect ratio that you choose will dictate the size of photo that you could have printed and not have to crop.