Aspect Ratios?

Question

My camera has 3 aspect ratios to pick from (4:3, 3:2, 16:9)... I don't know which ratio I should use as a "default" for my pictures. I took the exact same picture with each ratio and the only thing I noticed was the top and bottom got more and more chopped off as I went from 4:3 to 16:9.

I thought that as I went from 4:3 to 16:9 that I would loose vertical viewing, but gain more horizontal....was I wrong for assuming this? Which ratio should be used for which scenario? I originally liked the 16x9 because my laptop has a 1280x760 (wide screen) resolution so it would fit nice as wallpaper without being stretched or big vertical bars on either side.

I also plan to sometimes print 4x6 or 8x10 pictures periodically if they come out nice.

Thanks!

Its a Panasonic FX07, 7.1 mp

Answer 1

3:2 is pretty much the accepted standard. This goes back to 35 mm film, which was pretty close to that standard. Tradition. If you look even casually at the numbers, you will see that 3:2 will give you a perfect 6x4 print, also. Personally, I would stick to the convention for a default setting and only change if you have some good reason to do it. As you have observed, changing aspect ratios actually decreases the pixels in your pixel. If they are not there when you take the picture, they will never be there. You can always crop down to those aspect ratios after you've taken the picture.

Now, as to your question about losing height when you go from 4:3 to 16:9...

If you simply assign arbitrary units of measurement to the ratio, it makes it easier to understand. Suppose 4:3 was 4 inches by 3 inches. If you multiply this ratio by 4, you would have an image that measured 16 inches by 12 inches. Do the same thing with the 16:9 aspect ratio. The image would be 16 inches by 9 inches, or 3 inches shorter than the 16" x 12" provided by the 4:3 aspect ratio.

Changing aspect ratios will not change the WIDTH of your picture - ever - so it achieves the aspect ratio by altering the height. (This assumes a that you are holding the camera in a horizontal format.) Aspect ratio has nothing to do with the focal length of your lens. In order to gain more horizontal view, you need to use a wider focal length. This means zoom "in" a little more, if you have any more wide-angle zoom capacity remaining. If you don't, you'll just have to gain horizontal width the old-fashioned way... Back up and take another picture.

Answer 2

In general, 4:3 is square-like and 3:2, 16:9 are rectangular. It's alot easier to think of it in terms of resolution.

4:3 is 640x480 and 16:9 is 720x480. In this case, you would see more of the left and right and top/bottom is the same.

It sounds like your camera is just cropping the image to fit the aspect ratio, rather than changing the viewing area. In this case, the camera would not be working like it should.

What type of camera is it? If you want to print 4x6 pictures, then you would want to take 3:2 aspect ratio. If you want to print 8x10, then you can use 4:3 or 16:9 (landscape) and do a little cropping. Technically 8x10 is 4:5 aspect ratio.

Most people will take pictures in terms of megapixels. 2 megapixels (1600x1200) for 4x6 and 5 megapixels (2560 x 1920) for 8x10 are the general rules.

Are you using a video camera instead of a digital photo camera?

Answer 3

depends what is the final destination of that photo:
4:3 for TV NTSC show slides for instance
3:2 for prints like 4x6 or 8x12
16:9 for HDTV - wide screens.

however ..at any time you can crop the image with a photo editor that so will fit any ratio like if you print 8x10 or 5x7