Square
I notice recently that I’ve been cropping some of my images to a square or 4×5 format. I find that the 3×2 format of 35mm and D-SLR cameras don’t always work for what I’m shooting. I never used to crop my photos because I was framing the subject to fit in the camera viewfinder but it did not work when I viewed it on paper or on the screen.
However, I noticed that when I cropped some of them, it gave them a new life and changed the perspective of the photo. I’m sure I learned why in school, but my brain is like a sieve and I usually forget such minute technical details. I normally would shoot, process the levels and then post – maybe I could not be bothered to crop photos before.
Now that I think about it, why isn’t all film/digital in a more square format? Lenses are round and if film is not, there’s a lot of wasted space. I will guess that it started with some film manufacturing executive fitting into the manufacturing process or something like that. I’m going to a camera show on the weekend so I’m sure some people can let me in on the secret.
Enough talk, here are some pictures. Two of my favorite images, one square, one 4×5. Ironically, both from NY – maybe that’s what changed. Click on either image to jump to my flickr set.
Slideshows of the sets; click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
The 4×5 flickr set:
The square format set:
Batcave, Blogroll, Couchsurfing, Culture, Design, Environment, Flâneur, Neighbourhoods, New York, Photography, Technology, Toronto day by day, Travel | Garry October 2, 2008
