Aspect ratio

Snowy Saturday so I am working on my files, looking for the next photo i will print. I am somewhat amazed by the number of members that do not print their work. I look on this somewhat like big game hunting. The hunt is not really finished until it is bagged, tagged, stuffed and hanging on the wall. But I digress....

it goes without saying that I only shoot in raw and the first thing I do when I open a photo in my editor is to deal with the crop. What will I retain and what seems to me superfluous. This is the time I decide what the ultimate photo will look like.

Next comes sizing. and a large part of that is aspect ratio. The ratio determines how the photo will display. I did not use to look closely at this, but now understand how vital it is to the photos presentation. So now I size photos at different ratios and compare them to each other to select the perfect fit. Finally,then i deal with print size. I am continually surprised how much the prints final size plays in the overall impact of a photo.

Some photos scream to be large, others actually look better say printed as 5 x7 or even 6 x 6. Others need as large a print as can be rendered with degrading of the image.
Some days I feel that this is just as hard to learn as how to take the photo itself.

I would certainly welcome any other's thoughts on this subject, but for now it's back to the files. Break time is over.

If I am printing for myself I don't worry so much about a given ratio or size. It's what I think looks good and I handle the "Odd" sizes with the mat, I cut my own mats so it is easy and I can still get everything into standard frames.

I look upon the "aspect ratio" as an arbitrary thing, that is, dependent on a specific photo. I remember that, back in "the old days", we (European photo enthusiasts, at least) had had a lots of discussions on whether the traditional "full frame" aspect(s) of (printed) photos (dictated by film frame aspects such as 35mm /24:36/ or 6cm x 6cm/1:1/ etc.) is a MUST or not (there were certain exhibition galleries that even would not accept photos that did not fit the "standard" aspects - cropped photos were immediately ruled out, based on such criteria)...

As for the printing (must the photos be printed or not), I've got to remind my colleagues that there are a lot of good "digital picture frames", so if we want our photos be hung on the wall or stand on our cupboards, we've got options...

True. But as much as making and taking photographs is an art, printing is an art by itself. I don't print a lot but it takes a lot of work in creating a print that is close to what you visualize it to be. Print media can't replicate all colors you capture with the camera and that makes it a whole different ball game. Like developing prints in the film days, it is both a science and art.