PeterA
Well-known member
Bart you are on the right track regarding having a think about aspect ratio /lens choice and composition - speaking for myself, I think there are great advantages in 'seeing' through the viewfinder the actual aspect ratio you are wishing to emply - which as you have already noted above is a different thing to an after the fact crop.
regarding your two shots above:
One of things I noticed when I was shooting a lot of film with XPan - was that a panoramic aspect ratio suits an obvious front on horisontal framing of subject matter - ie wide from left to right.
I think that diagonal lined subject as per your car shots ( who can blame your eye being caught by an AMG and a Masserati) are more difficult to pull off compositionally if you frame them as diaginal lines - an interesting thing in your car shot - is actually thre blurred cyclist entering frame right. The bridge scene again is diagonal biased so the panoramic format again - is being challenged by the dominant diagonal lines of the subject - the bridge.
In both shots - I am asking myself "what isthe subject"? The 'trick' (for me) is to make the subject obvious. The 23MM is 'biased' towards what is very near.
I'll try and dig up some old film shots to illustrate how I go about using the apsect ratio.
here is an urban landscape I 'm happy with on SInar back and Schneider 23mm
and below is a street shot with XPan11 and 45mm
and here is an environmental type portrait
and here is a classic street type 'setup ' shot ....
regarding your two shots above:
One of things I noticed when I was shooting a lot of film with XPan - was that a panoramic aspect ratio suits an obvious front on horisontal framing of subject matter - ie wide from left to right.
I think that diagonal lined subject as per your car shots ( who can blame your eye being caught by an AMG and a Masserati) are more difficult to pull off compositionally if you frame them as diaginal lines - an interesting thing in your car shot - is actually thre blurred cyclist entering frame right. The bridge scene again is diagonal biased so the panoramic format again - is being challenged by the dominant diagonal lines of the subject - the bridge.
In both shots - I am asking myself "what isthe subject"? The 'trick' (for me) is to make the subject obvious. The 23MM is 'biased' towards what is very near.
I'll try and dig up some old film shots to illustrate how I go about using the apsect ratio.
here is an urban landscape I 'm happy with on SInar back and Schneider 23mm
and below is a street shot with XPan11 and 45mm
and here is an environmental type portrait
and here is a classic street type 'setup ' shot ....
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