The Final Format of Your Photograph

We are all confined to the size..or the format…of the photograph our camera takes for us. Most cameras have a horizontal format, others have a square format, but for some reason we seem to be bound by the format of the camera. But we should not be.

I am as guilty of that as anyone else. Too much of the time I am bound by a vertical or horizontal format because standard size mats basically come in those formats. It is cheaper to buy a precut mat..say for an 8×10 cutout.or a 4×6 or 5×7 cutout and let that me the deciding final format of our photograph.

If we are shooting a scene to end upon our living room wall…or to sell…it should be a format that shows off the photograph to the best advantage.  Because I shoot a medium format film camera I can crop my final photograph either vertical or horizontal……or anything else that I would like. Recently I was reprinting a photograph of an old bridge I took some 40 years ago and had cropped it into a horizontal format. But now looking at the entire photograph from a fresh perspective, I suddenly realizedthe horizontal photograph did not do justice to the scene, the full square format I suddenly liked better.  The top photograph shows the original scene with very little cropping. The second shows how I cropped it for an exhibit. Quite frankly, I like the full frame much better now.

What is your opinion. I would like to hear from you.