What you Need to Know About Aspect Ratio
Saturday, May 10, 2008 @ 23:58
You have probably heard this term mentioned before: "aspect ratio".
What is it and how can it affect the photographs you take?
The aspect ratio is a measurement of a photograph's width to its height. You need to know what the ideal ratio is for the type of medium you will be working with.
For example 35 mm film measures 36:24; it therefore has an aspect ration of 3:2. Such a ratio tends to produce perfect 6?x4? printed pictures. However, different aspect ratios are assigned to other mediums as well and they will have a letter designator to distinguish them. "H" represents the prefix for HDTV; while "C" stands for standard or 'classic' ratios. The letter "P" indicates a panoramic aspect ratio. Note that both the letters "C" and "P" can be utilized for photographic aspect ratios.
You should also note that different types of film with have different aspect ratios and it is important to know these before deciding on a photo print size. If you know that you want to produce 6"x4" prints, you will need to examine an aspect ratio chart in order to assess what type of film you will need to load into the camera to get ideal prints in that size. If you fail to do this and try to print photographs that do not conform to the particular film's ratio, the photo printer will either have to "pad" the picture's edges by perhaps adding a border, or will have to "crop" the photo's top and / or sides as well. This is because the only way he can maintain the integrity of a photograph that was shot with film of the wrong aspect ratio will be to alter the shape of the final print. This alteration may not produce the effect you would like and that is precisely why you should always make sure you have the proper film in your camera to do the job.
