The Secret to Making Square Format Photography Work
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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What I love about 1:1 is how it transforms vertical subjects. How it creates foreground, middle ground and background triangles. My list of crops that make me happy are 4:5 and 1:1 in that order.
I love square format! So fun to employ. ❤
Alex, you are the best. I love your wisdom shared.I could sit all day and listen to your enthusiasm for your craft.
Thank you for watching
Great video. I just obtained a medium format camera C330 and I am looking forward to using it
RS Canada
The last few months I have been focusing more on 1:1 format. And then after this video I picked up my new camera and looked in the menu and Wow! There it is! I can set my camera to shoot in 1:1!! Nikon Z6II
Great video Alex, i fell in love with square format when I bought my first medium format camera a Zeiss Ikon Netter. It takes incredibly sharp pictures considering it was made in 1948 and now I've bought a Rollieflex Model T 2 with the Carl Zeiss 75mm lens. I've just got it back from having a CLA and the pictures are amazing, the next camera for me will be a Hasselblad CM500.
Tilted images definitely work better square - they look more intentional! - another thing that gets overlooked with the old medium format film cameras (as well as large format and a very few 35mm as an option) is that you're looking at a flat image on the ground glass - that's something digital cameras have brought back on the rear LCD (particularly). It makes a difference when composing.
Love your enthusiasm for the square photo, Alex! I’ve been shooting in that format since before Christmas and love it, especially since I don’t have to turn my camera around to the vertical! It suits so many images and focuses directly on the subject, so you don’t find your eyes wandering around looking for it. Great video, Alex!
Thanks for watching
Minolta Autocord 1958, pride possession and used frequently....i know there are better cameras, but this is so tactile and has such lovely characteristics, id be hard put to part with it. Whats everyone else shooting on?
I’ve been shooting with a Canon S100 set 1:1 for a square format. It’s 12 megapixel and shoots raw. So small and awesome.
It’s the poor man’s way but on my mirrorless camera I can change the format to square and see that in the viewfinder.
I too love the square format. The one quibble I have with the perspective presented here is related to the purist notion that image cropping is sacrilegious. I'll agree that many images cannot be cropped into a square format but many square format images reside in a rectangular image. I get them very often from my 35 and dslr cameras.
Good topic, good video. I started on 35mm in my teens and discovered square format when I got a Polaroid SX-70 in the late ‘70s. I’d be using it today had it not been stolen 10 years later. Today I have a 6x6 TLR, and for digital I keep an old Fuji X-T10 configured to shoot square. I sometimes go months shooting mostly landscape format with other cameras before remembering that some of my favorite photos are my squares, and I’ll go back to those for a while. It calls for a different way of seeing, which is never a bad thing.
I started using square formats again about a year ago using a 6x6 folding camera. I believe the diagonals are much stronger in square because the are a different angle, steeper, more dramatic. The central perspective is also more intense in square maybe because you get a bit closer or the neagtive space is distributed evenly (if there is one). IDK, anyway I like it more and more. Thanks for another interesting video!
Thanks for watching
@@ThePhotographicEye Always a pleasure, and sorry for all the typos ;)
As a landscape photographer Thomas Heaton has helped me appreciate the simplicity that a square aspect ratio can create.
I like the square, for me every photo feels like an album cover.
Very inspiring photos, thank you so much.
Great video, and thought provocative. My Nikon Z9s have the option to shoot RAW in 1x1 format. I need to do that more - because as you say - it forces you to see and think in that space while taking the shot, rather than cropping later.
Last fall I tried an old Pentacon Six with square crop and I love it! It is so much different from digital. I look forward to exploring it further this year.
Thank you for the notes on composition - what I learned a long time ago is - to hell with all the "rules" that tell you to do or that you should be doing . Composition is the strongest way of seeing. With this point of view you don't need to remember any rules, you just feel and go with your gut.
I simply agree with you, Alex. When I was forced to go pro, I intuitively chose the square format (got started with Yashicamat TwinLensReflex, then Hasselblad SLR). But alas, now even Hasselblad skipped the magic quadrate in favour of the mainstream oblong format. I've given some ideas about recovering the square format to Leica and Nikon, but beyond some sponty interest this ain't gonna be a very crucial issue to them. Doesn't matter because I still insist in using proven, reliable gear from yesterday until nowadays;-))
Sine we never see the world in a square, photos that are square always look more purposeful to me. More of a composed choice.
I know other formats are composed choices as well, but the square just seems more so.
Great video. I’m gonna dig up my old Rolleiflex 6x6 and shoot some Tri-x film
Yes, I have one, I needed to have the shutter recalibrated. It was a bit off. But love it.
I have my camera grid set to square six squares by four squares and use just the middle four squares to compose my images in a square format. I learnt to love and use this in the film days when I used my Bronica it just became a natural style to me and seem to always see in square images.
The thing is, there's nothing magical or special about the 3 x 2 format. It's use is a historical accident. But a square is a very particular quadrilateral...
I've been feeling drawn to 1x1 for some time. Cropping a 3x2 image to 1x1 always feels like like rescuing a failed compcosition. But I've just bought a Nikon Z5, which not only can show 1x1 in the viewfinder, but can also capture 1x1 - you can't click a button and see "the rest of the scene"!
Looking forward to the new ways... 😁
Squares made me more Restrictively Creative in how I composed. It added a dimension for me to see things differently and to appreciate almost every picture I took, whether it was on film or digital. It was more mindful to say the least.
And here's the GAS part: because I found joy in Square format, I decided to play with analog film medium formats, including the mid century folders. Yikes....
And... because I felt joy in square format, I decided I also want to try panoramas! I had to stop myself from getting an xpan.
So my compromise is now a used Fuji GFX50R and I toggle between the Square and Pano aspects, and keeping sane with just the 50mm lens.
Oh, another reason why I love square format - I am always wearing a baseball cap. By shooting in squares, I don't have to turn my camera 90deg, which means I don't have to flip my cap backwards (which I hate).
Loving it!
I always look for the square image with every photo I take. Instead of having rule of thirds grid I use the 6 squares by 4 squares grid. Then just use the middle four squares of the grid to compose the image. Wish I had never sold my Bronica SQA. Ho Hum!!
Love my Mamiya C3 (I too was wowed by the square WLF view) and my compact little Agfa Isolette II - 6x6 is fabulous.
I have been shooting for almost two years with my olympus pen e-p2 camera only square format pictures in black and white and I love this very much
I think of my Rollei, as my tree camera! Oh! And some headshots! I love and adore the Golden rectangle. A lot of thinking it's professional, is Pavlov training! All the LP's, Cd, DVD covers and boxes! I bought the Pentax 6x7 Because it was rectangular. Oh! In my professiona life, I did Fashion! Yes! Mamiyaflex TLR's. I framed to fit paper. Nice ideas for others!
I occasionally use square format. Mostly some of my macro and my street work. My Nikon Zf and Z8 allow me to view square format.
Just put a small strip of gaffer tape on each side of your viewfinder :-) Instant square format on a shoe string.
I do the same. Niko Nikolakakis
Just acquired a Agfa Super Isolette. Medium format. 6x6. Can't wait to try it out. Will keep your tips in mind
So.....how to photograph square with a trad camera? Any suggestions besides cropping?
when I setup my Nikon DSLR in 1:1 cropped mode, not only do I see the world in square in the viewfinder and rear LCD but also my raw images are true square (pixels outside the square are not recorded).
Hmm … presented in black & white, unusually dogmatic … early for 1 April?
When using an eye level camera, SLR or rangefinder, it feels as if you are looking at the subject "through" the camera but when you use a square format waist level camera the image appears projected on the screen. This gives a much better idea of the bi-dimensional printed image. You don't see the scene but a flat projection of it.
Ive ben shooting square format for thebpast year and kove it...ive always been an against the grain kinda guy (do the opposite of what others do)
I shoot with the GRiii however im always battling within myself to shoot color or Black and white.
Excellent video. Very helpful education.
The square format can make optimal use of the image circle. of lenses, with analogue medium format 6x6 cameras that is. With nowadays' digital camera you loose pixels because they crop into the rectangular 2:3 format. Still your picture quality could improve because you might finally get pictures that are sharp from edge to edge...
People in galleries always seem to be more drawn to and purchase my square images more, I think it's partly due to the fact that it's anuncommon drawing, photograph and painting frame format
Great video! Inspired me to keep my viewfinder in 1:1. I shoot raw so I can change in post and I’ve noticed that composing in 1:1 improves my compositions even if I change aspect ratio in post. Thanks!
Thank you for watching.
Yeah I shoot in 1:1 and love it , I shoot with my GRiii .
I have used the 6x6 Hasselblad 500 C/M for four decades, so the square format isn't something new for me to conquer, but today's 360 is. 🙂
Great episode!
Mirrorless cameras with electronic viewfinder provide the flexibility to shoot natively in different aspect rations like never before.
Hi Alex! I’ve shot square format from my Twin Lens Reflex days and with the Holga. Today I use my iPhone set to square format and love it. Thanks for sharing such an inspiring video!
Thanks for watching
For me photography came alive by getting rid of chemicals with digital and when square became rectangle
There used to be a 6x6 app for the iPhone and then they took it down. Although you can shoot square with the native app I miss the 6x6 app. It had some unique features. Thank you for the thoughts on square. Definitely more to consider.
Thanks for watching
Alex! I LOVE your square photography! It's amazing! I never liked 1:1 format before but you've opened my world. I have an old square format camera and it'll feel new now.
Awesome! Thank you!
My use of square, to date, is to recompose and integrate other people's absolutely hideous smartphone verticals into my immeasurably beautiful 16:9 horizontal videos. 😇This is one of my standard rescue operations. Actually taking square photos had never been my intent up to now. But seeing the photos Alex has presented, I am going to take a closer look at the square idea.
My cameras can do square, my smartphone can do square, and looking through a square viewfinder gives me a completely different view of the world.
Seeing I had never bothered to change my native 3:2 aspect ratio in the camera to anything else, I had often come up across the problem of integrating my own 3:2 stills into 16:9 videos. Of course, I had done the composition looking through my 3:2 viewfinder and the result was an optimal 3:2 picture. That is not quite the same as an optimal 16:9. Quite clearly, if I had used a 16:9 viewfinder on the camera, a perfect 16:9 composition would have resulted.
A few experiments, triggered off by Alex's video, have shown me that this is even more problematic if you are aiming at 1:1. You really do have to compose looking through a 1:1 viewfinder. As Alex pointed out, cropping afterwards is just not the same.
Square definitely is more dynamic and square really is radically different. I am afraid that Alex has somehow managed to infect me with an insatiable itch to produce a whole flock of square images over the next few weeks.
That’s awesome.
@@ThePhotographicEyeThe only squares I have are old square black and white prints taken by relatives back in the forties and fifties. This was also the vinyl age, so at the time there was quite a lot of square around.
Not belonging to the Insta generation, square has for me quite an old-fashioned touch.
Nicely put together video you’re 100% right you look down at that square and you suddenly become a professional photographer it’s as you described it’s magical!
Thanks
Fantastic review and work
The super ikonta B is very square.
Sometimes the 35mm begs to be cropped.
I am on a windows machine and the pictures don't look square. I am not sure if they would look square on a Mac. I am not sure what the implications for the Web are.
It must be in my head. I measured a square image and it has the same horizontal and vertical dimension on the screen but it does not look square to me.
I use Olympus and I can shoot square format JPEG, having a square view in my viewfinder. The raw file is still 4:3 but I am seeing 1:1 when shooting and have a 1:1 reference JPEG (which is often all I need).
Square format is my preferred format when shooting film. Of course, it doesn't have to be an expensive Hasselblad or Rolleiflex kit. Any good TLR or folding camera is fine. When composing in square, I always think about "balance" and "imbalance". The simplest meaning is putting the object of interest on the middle of the frame (ha symmetry!) or not. Of course, balance vs imbalance isn't only a matter of object positioning, you need to see how the object interacts with other, overall. One of the classic examples of square format composition are Michael Kenna's.
What kind oh hardware do I need?😂
What a good idea! Thanks, going to shoot some street in 1:1 tomorrow. As someone else commented with modern mirrorless cameras it's easy to do. My personal workhorse is a Nikon D780 which is basically a Z6 in liveview mode, so I see the chosen image size on the rear screen. 1:1 on a full-frame sensor will produce an image size of @ 24mm x 24mm, on Fuji GFX the image size will be @ 33mm x 33mm. So there's another reason to lust after the GFX cameras. Cheers
If, like me, you feel that a "normal" lens is the diagonal of the film/sensor, so that "normal" for Full Frame is 43mm and "normal" for an 8x10" camera is 341mm (you'd use a 300mm lens) then a Full Frame, 24x36mm sensor camera set to 1:1 aspect ratio becomes a 24x24 sensor and the diagonal of that, your "normal" lens is 34mm.
Loved the 1:1 of the video. LOL
I'm looking at my Yashica Mat 124 and Mamyia RZ67Pro differently now.
I've got the square viewfinder set up on my Nikon D850 and I think my D810 had the same feature. In viewfinder mode, the area to the left and right are blanked out leaving a 24 x 24 MP image to compose with. Switch to live view, and you just get a square image on the LCD - have used and loved it for years. Are you saying Canon don't have this? thats a shock.
Fujifilm cameras I’ll have the ability to shoot square format. And it shows as square in the viewfinder.
I love portrait format
Ironically, it may be that since the square format is supposedly the "pro" one that I've stuck with 35 mil in my own work. Because it's the more "familiar" format to most home photographers (or was), in my own work, I want to depict things that people might have seen on their own, had they looked at them. It may also be that I came to photography from film-making that the rectangular image is more comfortable--and I don't feel I have the problems composing within it that you allude to. In the end, of course, it's the impact of the picture that matters.
...And it's also why there's chocolate and vanilla. ;-)
I just bought a YashicaFlex B TLR for $149 for an inexpensive way to experience square format. It is magical to look into that ground glass. I bought mine at Japan Vintage Camera so I could know it had been gone over and was in working order and the light seals were good, etc.
I miss my hasselblad. thanks for this. You make me laugh. I turned pro at 19 and joined my first camera club about 10 years late. Entering photo competitions drove me crazy. I never won anything. Worse, I think if I hadn't been a reasonably successful photographer first, I would have been depressed about my low standing in photo competitions.
Nice video
My grandpa was a good photographer in his day mostly 60's and he used a Rolleiflex and shot 6x6 monochromatic, i have his archive and love the look!
Get the Hipstamatic ap
I comissioned Gered Mankowitz back when i was an art director. Lovely bloke and his studio had some stunning photos on the walls.. The Stones, Hendrix etc
Probably 90% of my work is in a square format, the company I do work for loves it as much as I do.
This was wonderful. Just the oomph I needed to finally do it, been wanting to a long time but couldn’t quite figure it out. Thank you 🙏
Never have thought about shooting in Square Format to be honest. I will give it a try and think I have just the right Idea for it. Thanks for the food for thought.
Very valuable lesson. Looks like my Z7ii will shoot 1:1. I’ll have to experiment.
As a fujifilm shooter, if I set it to shoot in raw + jpeg and set the aspect ratio to 1:1, I can preview the square format on the lcd and Evf when shooting.
I was wondering why I like square format and i came to conclusion that one of the first images my eyes have seen was my dad’s vinyls :)
The reason Rolleiflex cameras were preferred with press photographers over Hasselblads was the ability to focus and compose waistlevel or at eyelevel with the clever mirror system in the hood. A prism finder alone was not versatile enough
I think it's great for portraits to really put powerful emphasis on the subject, also for graphic / shape compositions. But for landscape I just find it very restrictive (unless for a detail shot).
I loved using my Hasselblad and sl66 with tilt. Great the square format.
I find almost everything looks better squared, but I try not to overuse it. Mostly use it for Instagram and for photos that don't work at all rectangular. I have shot square, but I don't remember if it was different. I'll have to try it again, not just use it for bad photos.
I love 1:1! I particularly like it for street and fine art images. I love the old press images that were taken in square on medium format cameras, they have a look that can’t be replicated on a cropped 35mm
My first camera, fifty years ago, was a twin lens Yashica. I really loved that camera. I loved it so much that, three years ago I bought the same camera from a used dealer.
I like the steady flow of images. Some channels waffle without showing anything and that does me in.
I found the great inspiration for square photography to be music album covers. Maybe a topic worth exploring in the future?
I was going to say the same thing. A lot of us would have grown up looking at square photos as kids and teens when we played records or went to our local music store. Then later on, CDs came out and were also square. I often shoot portraits in square format and imagine it's for an album cover. It's fun.
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti album cover is Elliott Erwitt's most widely seen image. He was hired to shoot it by the album cover designer.
Diane Arubs!? Lol
I'm just proud that I realized that was a mistake, a few years ago I didn't know of any photographers other than Ansel Adams and Liebovitz. :)
Do you crop images in post or in camera?
Crop images in post ☺️
Hi Alex.
I am wondering how much the square format of record sleeves was an influence on your love of 6 x 6? "Broken Frames" by Depeche Mode shot by, Brian Griffin, is my favourite album sleeve.
The Holga creates a certain kind of photo, and you get into a certain mindset to use it, if you have the awareness to do so, which you do (David Burnett also comes to mind as a Holga user).
The Holga also raises the issue of camera snobbery. I used to get laughed at for using a Holga and an Olympus Pen f half frame by what you would call the "camera club types" but he who laughs last etc, etc...
Sending you good vibes from London and enjoy the rest of your day.
Thank you, you to
Alex, you are always so much connected to your topics. Immediately I would like to photograph in square. Wow. I will probably do this with my gr3x using only jpeg in square... no way back then. Digital but square. Cheers Dirk
Go for it.
My first medium format camera was a Mamiya C330 TLR. Loved that camera because it confused people. It was great for street photography and studio photography. The larger negative was great for printing. And it meant working with a square format.
As an abstract painter, I had already settled on a square format because there were so many ways you could breakup the space. Working with it in film was a great experience. And eventually I did pick up a used Hasselblad and loved that just as much as the Mamiya.
Fast forward to digital photography and the square medium format was just prohibitively expensive. I still make square final images, but feel at times that it is a bit of a cheat. I’ve tried setting full frame cameras to a square format, but it’s still not quite the same.
Either way, that square still speaks to me because it is neither horizontal or vertical. It is up to the photographer to make it do more than just sit there. To move beyond just squatting a subject in the center. And that’s what makes it great.
Thanks for another wonderful exploration.
Thank you for watching
Amazing format for photography and for a youtube videoo, I have enjoyed this one a lottt
❤️Beautiful content and work
Thank you
Great video Alex. My first experience was with a C330 and loved it. From there I went through many brands, Bronica SQ-A, Rollieflex, Rollie 6008i and eventually Hasselblad 501. I recently sold my 'Blad but never the Rolleiflex 2.8f. The square is just magic when you get it right. It does take work to make that happen I think but when you do, wow.
Thank you
Wow. So much in one video. I love square. I think you can really focus in on a subject in square. The first camera I bought with my pocket money in my early teens was a Lubitel II TLR for £9.99 which was 6x6 format so I cut my photography teeth on square format and I guess It's stuck with me over the 50 years since. I often set my camera to shoot RAW + low res JPG in a 1:1 format (which sets the LCD and EVF of my camera to a square format) so that I am at least composing in square even though the RAW comes out in 3:2 format which I have to crop later, using the JPG as a handy reference of what I was thinking at the time. This video really got me thinking so thank you and keep it up.
Thank you for watching
Great video 👌 Im drawn naturally I think to square. Still shoot 16:9 and 4:3 but something about square moves me more I suppose. Its that format that I aim for first when I shoot anything. Great content by the way Alex.. I find your talks and discussions massively helpful and informative. Thank you
Thanks for watching.
Excellent video as usual! Really appreciate that you are putting yourself out there regarding your own photos. Also, can we just stop calling them photography rules, and just call them what they are, guidelines?
Thank you.
90 % of my personal work is on 6 x 6 and Yashica 635/ D. Love it. Love your videos too. Thanks!
Thanks for watching
Thank you. All the best. 👍📷😎
Square format always reminds me of the photos my father made with his Ricoh 44 camera. I still have that camera! One thing about square format is that you never need to rotate the camera to portrait orientation. Another way to simplify things like shooting with a prime. One focal length, no zooming unless you move your feet! Now, I think I need to set my camera to a 1:1 format to shoot and see what happens! Have to say that I just love that image of the boy @13:20 I really want to better at making an image like that. The transition from shadow to light on the nose/face is soooo cool. Great stuff Alex. Have a great week.
Thank you, you to
Great video as always. I really need to try cropping to square format more often, as I love the look in certain circumstances. My problem is that I always forget to try a 1:1 crop to see what the result looks like. My camera bodies can't shoot in 1:1, but I just took a few of my recent photos and did a 1:1 crop on them and I'm starting to like it even more.
I am sooo going to try this. Thank you Alex. Your videos are always helpful.
Thanks for watching
I would like to make a video of my photos, how do you do that? Like what you do here, but without voice, just maybe music.
You can use places like Animoto or possibly Canva
Your square photos look very good
Miss my Roleiflex and it's ground glass. My digital camera offers square format, but it insists that I shoot both RAW & JPG to do it. I have not tried yet, but I suspect that the JPG will be square and the RAW will be full size. I have to try it. I imagine just using the back LCD to compose the shots.
Just experimented with my Fuji X-T5. Set in RAW + JPG with square format, it stores both types of files as square. It will not set to square in just RAW. Looking down at my LCD with it flipped up horizontal, It is quite a bit like the experience of using a square medium format, however, forget focusing manually that way. Have to use the viewfinder.
@@naturesoundsnz I tested it earlier. On my Fuji X-T5, it actually captured square RAW files. At least that's what they looked like in Lightroom.