Aspect ratio

An aspect ratio is the relative sizes of the height and width of an image.

Many different aspect ratios have and continue to be used in photography. In film photography, the 3:2 ratio became the most commonplace as it was the native ratio of 135 film. The 4:3 ratio of 645 format also saw alot of usage. Many film cameras used a 1:1 (square) ratio, exemplified by the popular 126 film format.

Almost all digital camera models today natively use the 4:3 ratio. There are few exceptions to this rule among compact cameras but the majority of dSLR cameras use 3:2 sensors.

An assortment of aspect ratios are used with photographic prints. This means images are often cropped to fit.

Glossary Terms