Posted Thursday, May 12, 2005
Everything You Wanted to Know About Aspect Ratios
4:3? 16:9? What's it all about, Sophie?
As I say in my book, aspect ratio describes the proportions of an image: its width to its height. Most digital cameras shoot with an aspect ratio of 4:3—four units of width for every three units of height.
As I mentioned last week, it's important to pay attention to a photo's aspect ratio when ordering prints through iPhoto (or, for that matter, any other photofinisher).
While poking around on the Web this morning, I stumbled on this handy reference to every common aspect ratio—and more than a few uncommon ones. (For example, the aspect ratio for IMAX films is 274:191.)
