Aspect ratio advice please

amys_wavesandwonders

Hi, May I get some advice on aspect ratios for landscapes? I usually keep most my images 4;6 . but if I know I'll be posting to IG I will try an 4:5 and somethimes it actually looks better. Only rare occasions I take it down to a 1:1.

Here is where I'm curious about what others are doing. Recently I started cropping some 16:9 for a pano look and it really helped the composition. Since it was a default option in PS I assumed 16:9 was a standard print size. Until I tried to print and discovered 16:9 is more for screen display than for printing panos. What are some common and popular ratios for pano crops that are more commonly used?

I cropped several of mine destructively and saved a psd in PS. :-( I'll have to probably re-edit from raw now.

ziggy53

With landscape, in particular, I let the subject matter and scene dictate the aspect ratio. If that means cropping to some weird aspect ratio, use a physical or digital matte to match a more standard aspect ratio, or, in the case of some really special subject matter, use a custom frame to match your image. Diptych and triptych treatments may also be a consideration.

If you find yourself commissioned to do an original image to fit an existing space, make sure that you define any aspect-ratio and size requirements as well as any other creative decisions, both verbally and in contract, before the shoot.

amys_wavesandwonders

@ziggy53 said:
With landscape, in particular, I let the subject matter and scene dictate the aspect ratio. If that means cropping to some weird aspect ratio, use a physical or digital matte to match a more standard aspect ratio, or, in the case of some really special subject matter, use a custom frame to match your image. Diptych and triptych treatments may also be a consideration.

If you find yourself commissioned to do an original image to fit an existing space, make sure that you define any aspect-ratio and size requirements as well as any other creative decisions, both verbally and in contract, before the shoot.

Tha k you so much! That makes sense.

ziggy53

I had to look up what the "IG" likely meant in your original post. If your question is really how best to post images to Instagram and other social media, I'm not really much help for that so hopefully someone else will chime in.

To be honest, I detest the image quality drop and formatting restrictions of most social media sites, so rarely post anything serious to them. I recognize that many photographers do use social media to launch and assist their online visibility, but since I don't use them personally, I'm kinda useless that way.