I’m very pleased to say that I’ve managed to finish writing this new e-book about aspect ratios. Which I feel is a massive improvement upon the first one.

I really need to shelve it now for a week or two, to gain some distance from it. I then intend to read right through it and make notes on what I think is missing or could be tuned a bit more.

Most of us never even consider that one of the artistic decisions we can make is which aspect ratio to use, not only when we are shooting, but also in terms of how we present our work. For many, aspect ratios aren’t even considered when buying a camera. Yet certain aspect ratios are just harder to work in than others.

The aspect ratios that any new camera offers can be a make or break for me. I find working in some aspect ratios a real breeze compared to others, and this all started out by me moving from 35mm to 6:7 over 25 years ago. When I did, I found my compositions just got a lot easier and it was all due to the shape of the frame.

My first e-book was mostly about how the shape of the frame you compose in affects how the subjects are spaced out around the frame. And of course, a consideration for shooting in something less difficult than 3:2, because quite frankly 3:2 is an awkward ratio to work in. Perhaps this is news to you? Perhaps you’ve always thought that 3:2 is fine? Or perhaps you always find you have to come home and re crop later on?

Anyway, the new e-book discusses how we tend to be blind to certain areas of the frame, how our periphery vision works (we have three forms of peripheral vision : near, mid and far) and how wider aspect ratios are more difficult to compose in as a result of using our periphery vision. The new book has exercises or advice in terms of what to do at the end of each of the seven chapters.

I think the book will still have to go through a few more revisions, but I feel it’s mostly there now. Each revision will just be about making the message clearer, and trying to tidy up areas where it feels it’s not focussed enough.

It’s currently sitting at over 50 pages. I like to keep things succinct. When formatted, the e-book should really have a clear message for each page in the book. I don’t like padding things out with waffle. And the reason it is currently at 50 pages instead of less pages, is due to the visual nature of showing variations of the same scene shot in different aspect ratios.