Shapes and Lenses

By Anthony Shaughnessy

With so many in camera aspect ratios, focal lengths and the ability to crop in post processing, how do you decide how to frame the scene in front of you? Landscape photography Anthony Shaughnessy shares his thoughts below.

This shot is my ideal shot. My widest angle lens and the camera's native aspect ratio.

Whernside Sunrise

For some reason this combination is a sort of ideal I strive for. I can't explain it and it doesn't make sense even to me. Why shouldn't I use longer lenses and why shouldn't I crop to different aspect ratios? I'm mostly against any sort of rules when it comes to art and photography. Do whatever works for you. Yet I always find myself trying to adhere to a standard of a wide angle lens and a native aspect ratio.

This shot cheats on both counts.

Swlaedale View

 A long lens with the shot cropped to 16:9. The picture works, I like it, but for some reason it still feels like cheating. I don't know why, especially as I do it all the time. I use all kinds of focal lengths and I switch between native, 16:9 and square format with ease.

I'm wary when something feels too easy in photography. I find more and more that I'm choosing 16:9 or square format for composition. Both seem a more natural fit for what I see around me while 4:3 (the native shape of my current favourite camera) or 3:2 (native on my bigger camera and all my older ones) both seem clumsy and unnatural. Yet I have lots of shots that I love in all those formats.

There's a thing in my head telling me that I should be looking for a composition that suits the shape of the camera's sensor and that by cropping I'm cheating and making it too easy for myself. The same with lens choice, I usually find that if I'm zooming in it's because I'm struggling to find a good scene.

It's true that when I come across a location that is rich in subject matter then I'm much more likely to use my favoured duo, wide angle and native aspect. That doesn't invalidate the choice of long lens and alternative aspects though.

The truth is that there are no rules, no rights and wrongs, you can use any lens and picture shape you want to make a picture that you like. I've always been totally against artificial rules set by other people.

It still feels like cheating though.