Aspect Ratio Guidelines

[gstrek]

The E-PL1 can shoot a number of aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 6:6) and it is easliy selectable from the menu. Are there any guidelines as to which to use when? Is there a preference?

If I was shooting for movies or display on HDTV, choosing 16:9 makes sense.
Choose 3:2 ratio for no cropping of 4x6 prints, some cropping for 13x19.
Choose 4:3 ratio for printing 8.5x11 with a little cropping.

I tend to crop pretty tight when I shoot and what is fine at 8.5x11 gets the top and bottom severely cropped out of a 4x6 print. I have so far used the 'default' 4x3 (hey, it is a micro four-thirds system!) but am strongly considering shooting 3:2.

So what are you using? Hints or guidelines?

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Hi Gary,

Both the Panasonic and Olympus Micro four thirds systems have a 4/3 sensor which is 17.3 X 13 mm the aspect ratio for 4/3. The size of the sensor does not change because you set a different aspect ratio on the camera. All that is happening is that less of the sensor is being used, so if you go to 16:9 you cut off or crop out the top and bottom of the sensor reducing the number of MP's be used to capture the image. Using 3:2 and 6:6 do the same thing, so the only way you get to use the full 12.3 MP's on the sensor is to shoot at 4:3, It is true that some of this information will be lost making a print and for 4 X 6 inch prints you could be using a 2 MP sensor and you could not tell the difference. Most print sizes and magazine sizes require larger crops from a 3:2 format cameras than from 4:3 format cameras. This is one reason most medium format cameras are 4:3.

Phil Rudin

 

[gstrek]

I understand that the sensor doesn't change and in fact, the LCD display shows a 'black bar' on the top and bottom when set to other than 4:3 showing what you see is what you get.

From what I gather, a photographer might choose the in camera aspect ratio depending on the ultimate use of the photo: for magazine, for snapshot prints, for art prints, etc. if minimized cropping is desired. Otherwise, shoot 4:3, don't crop as tight in the shot to allow for cropping the final, finished product. Interesting that 35 mm is essentially a 3:2 ratio.

Thanks,

 

[under water]

I have found that I mostly view my photos (and videos) on 16*9 screens (PC & HDTV), so I have pretty much decided to use the 16 x 9 format. I do lose the ability to move the image up or down a bit when cropping by lopping off the top and bottom, but the flip side is you get more pix per card.
BTW. RAW always saves the whole image.

 

[gstrek]

A separate but somewhat related question: What color space do you use -Adobe or sRGB?

For electronic display the choice would seem to be sRGB. What woud you choose for printing and publishing? Is this a moot point if shooting RAW?