Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: hasakibydaxua on March 30, 2020, 12:08:44 pm
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Hello,
I am new to this site and am on the market for a high quality digital format camera. I am an art photographer, not a pro, and have shot on SLR and a bit of digital 'point and shoot'. Now I want to step up to high quality digital but prefer the aspect ratio of 6: 5 or 6: 6, instead of 3: 2 or 4: 3. I want to be able to shoot directly in this composition instead of cut later. A camera that allows you to adjust the aspect ratio would be ideal but I have not come across this ..?
Can anyone direct me to some good reviews? I have looked at the pages of Michael Reichmann's 'Digital Average Format in the field' but I wonder which device / review has appeared more recently than 2020 ??
Thanks
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Most mirrorless cameras let you see other ratios right in the viewfinder. The Fujis and the hasselblad x1d are the obvious ones in medium format. If shooting raw, most software should automatically apply the crop for you. The catch is you still have the outside of the crop data in case you want to reframe later.
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Now I want to step up to high quality digital but prefer the aspect ratio of 6: 5 or 6: 6, instead of 3: 2 or 4: 3. I want to be able to shoot directly in this composition instead of cut later.
I used to worry about the aspect ratio but now I don't. When I shot product of say bags I would move the camera stand in for small items and out for big. Now shooting with the X1D I just set it up for the biggest items and crop later. With 50MP of beautiful image you can crop down enormously and still have 20MP of sharp image which is enough for most things.
If you had the Pulitzer Prize winning shot what do you do if the magazine wants a different format?
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I think he's more concerned about the visualization of the aspect ratio while shooting. Seeing that ratio in the viewfinder for instance. This is important to a lot of people. Even Leica had modified an S camera to have a panoramic mask for a photographer that wanted to see in a panoramic ratio. (can't remember the exact aspect)
I know for me, if my clients are requesting a square ratio delivery (which is far more common lately with certain website templates finding square trendy) I often switch my viewfinder display to a square ratio and compose like that. Yes it's technically just an aftercrop... but i'de rather see it the way the end result will be up front. It just makes decisions faster and easier.
For products being cut to white for catalogs, I shoot to have the most product in the frame period. Then I "re-canvas" them later to the aspect ratio. Then it's all about data collection. That's totally different.
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If you had the Pulitzer Prize winning shot what do you do if the magazine wants a different format?
chop the head off ;) or change the magazines format.