Experimenting with Aspects Ratios – 4:5
Backlighting is something I’ve neglected for too long, especially as it creates beautiful light for photography. The 4:5 aspect ratio puts more emphasis on the leaves than a standard 3:2 would do. 1/100s 50mm F8.0 ISO 200.
In the digital era one aspect of photography that often gets completely overlooked are aspect ratios (pardon the pun). The overwhelming majority of cameras today shoot in a 3:2 with a few micro four thirds cameras unsurprisingly shooting 4:3. However during the film era a much wider variety of formats were readily available. These include the square aspect ratio of 1:1 as well as 6:7, 5:7 and 4:5.
Swallows on the Line. 4:5 can still give a good vertical thrust without it being overly long. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 ISO 64.
It was an eBook by Bruce Percy that got me thinking more about this and why always shooting in 3:2 can prove to be very limiting. Especially as 3:2 was originally devised for motion picture before a stroke of genius by Oskar Barnack at Leica produced the very first 35mm stills cameras in the 1920s. The great masters of stills photography in this era such as Ansel Adams were predominantly shooting square or 4:5. Which aspect ratio you use will radically alter your compositional technique as the ideal positioning of a subject changes. 3:2 is very long, and you may find using a less long aspect ratio benefits what you are shooting. These are also even more opposite to the very long images taken on mobile phones today. Something to bear in mind when trying to create images that stand apart from the rest.
I positioned my camera so that the lit shaft of wheat was set against a dark background to give it a sense of depth even at F11. As cameras only perceive the world in 2D and not 3D like our eyes we have to think of ways to compensate for that. 1/125s 50mm F11 ISO 64.
In theory the advantage in the digital age is that it is now possible to go into your camera’s menu and change the image area to a different aspect ratio, either with additional frame lines on a DSLR or black bars on mirrorless cameras. Sadly, despite it being a quick fix in the software many manufacturers still offer relatively few options, made worse by a lack of consistency across camera bodies. For example, my Nikon D850 has a 4:5 mode but my Z8 only has an option for 4:5 grid lines that I would need to crop to in post, my Z8 does however have a 16x9 mode which is missing from my D850. Confusingly the Z7 and Z7ii both have a 4:5 and 16x9 modes. There really is no logic to it.
I applied a similar technique when shooting this cow parsley. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 ISO 64.
For this reason, I decided to dust off my D850 and my trusty nifty fifty for a walkaround during golden hour shooting 4:5 images. Perhaps by taking this different approach I could create new interpretations of familiar places. Having smaller file sizes doesn’t hurt either. I was also experimenting with back lighting, something else I’ve largely ignored in the past as most of my professional shooting is done during the middle of the day.
Some subjects work better in monochrome without the distraction of colour. 1/320s 50mm F2.8 ISO 64.
Shooting in 4:5 changed the emphasis of the lines leading out of this telephone pole. The triangle formed by the pole and the descending cable wouldn’t have been as strong in a longer 3:2 aspect ratio. 1/400s 50mm F5.6 ISO 64.
It’s hard to summarise why one aspect ratio is better than another but put simply it’s about putting more emphasis on your subject without having to include distracting elements that weaken the image. Choose the wrong aspect ratio and you may find you are including too much foreground, or maybe too much sky. The power of your leading lines may also be diminished, or you may end up with an unbalanced image. It all comes down to what you want to emphasise.
These leaves were the most illuminated by the backlighting and by shooting in 4:5 I could crop out unnecessary and distracting elements on the left and righthand side. 1/160s 50mm F8.0 ISO 64.
The aim of this blog is not to say that 3:2 is terrible and that we should all start to avoid using it, but to get you to consider using different aspect ratios as part of your compositional repertoire. Whatever camera you have, go into the menus and see what options are available. Whether that is a choice of image areas or simply grid lines, have a go as composing images in a different way and see what impact that has on your photography. You may be surprised with the results.
The sun sets over a golden field of wheat. 1/80s 50mm F8.0 ISO 125.
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