Aspect ratios
Great post by Ming Thein on Aspect ratios and compositional theory:
Most people will stick to the aspect ratio that is native to the camera, and either do nothing else, or crop to fit later. This is compositionally very, very sloppy – not only do you not get the best frame for the shape of your subject, there’s a very good chance that you probably won’t be able to fill the frame properly, either; 3:2 is a bit of a compromise aspect ratio that lacks the organic intimacy of 5:4 or 4:3 for portraits, or the drama of 16:9 for more expansive scenes.
I’m no Thein, but right now I’m rather enjoying fiddling/cursing/tweaking/fuzting about with a cheap toy lens on my GF1:
I seem to be cropping wider than 16x9 at the moment. Perhaps I’ll work out why if I shoot a whole lot more.