Understanding Image Format

[Ronniebootwest]

There has been an awful lot of stuff written about image size, resolution and format but I am sure that, like me, there are many who find this subject confusing.

You will know what I mean if you have 'Cropped' an image down to a pre-determined size to match a specific format because you will have noticed that you very often

lose quite a lot of the original image. I have found this particularly relevant when re-sizing an image to fit some of the many templates that are now available.

For example, I had to make a slide show recently for a wedding couple who wanted a 'wedding album' of thier photo's on a DVD, but when I cropped the images to fit

the template, I lost far to much of the image (I need to step back a bit at vthe taking stage next time and avoid the close ups)

My camera produces RAW images at 4992*3528 - can someone tell me what image format this is please? Is it 3:2, 4:3, 5:4 or whatever and what screen resolution will it best fit.

1920*1200, 1920*1080 or any of the many others that only servr to confuse me.

Ronnie

[Ken Cox]

Ronnie

maybe this will help - i have it on a clipboard under my keyboard and add my notes to it all the time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

ken

[davegee]

Ron,

It helps if you get the res figures correct?

4992 divided by 3328 = 1.5 = 3/2 = 3:2

DG

This might help:

[denwell]

Ken

Link goes nowhere!

Dave

Thanks for that - an easy to understand graphic.

[AnKo]

Hi Dave,

Your graphic is very clear in showing the differences in aspect ratio's. But when I look at the top left image, there is a lot less to see then in the botom right image. What format/ratio is the image that you used?

In PtE it is possible to show the full image in any given ratio. Used in your example it might give a better overview of those ratio's?

I might be wrong but I believe that this is where Ronnie's question is about: what (output) aspect ratio to use with a given format of his camera to prevent losing to much of the original picture with the cropping.

Hope you understand what I mean.

Kind regards,

André

[Ronniebootwest]

Dave,

You are right, my eyesight is getting bad - it is 3328 and not 3528.

Thanks for the graphic, it helps. I also recognise the location as the River Monow in Monmouth.

Ken,

I will read up on the stuff you sent to me, later.

[Ken Cox]

Ken

Link goes nowhere!

Dave

Thanks for that - an easy to understand graphic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

works in the colonies

ken

This article does not cite any references or sources.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)For other uses, see Aspect ratio (disambiguation).For computer screen topics, see display resolution. For screen rotation and portrait mode, see page orientation."4:3" redirects here. For the 4/3 digital camera/lens standard, see Four Thirds system."16:9" and "16x9" redirect here. For the Canadian newsmagazine show, see 16:9 (TV series).Five common aspect ratiosThe aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this same length unit, the height will be measured to be y units. For example, consider a group of images, all with an aspect ratio of 16:9. One image is 16 inches wide and 9 inches high. Another image is 16 centimeters wide and 9 centimeters high. A third is 8 yards wide and 4.5 yards high.

Aspect ratios are mathematically expressed as x:y (pronounced "x-to-y") and x×y (pronounced "x-by-y"), with the latter particularly used for pixel dimensions, such as 640×480. Cinematographic aspect ratios are usually denoted as a (rounded) decimal multiple of width vs unit height, whilst photographic and videographic aspect ratios are usually defined and denoted by whole number ratios of width to height. In digital images there is a subtle distinction between the Display Aspect Ratio (the image as displayed) and the Storage Aspect Ratio (the ratio of pixel dimensions); see distinctions, below.

The most common aspect ratios used today in the presentation of films in movie theaters are 1.85:1 and 2.39:1.^[1] Two common videographic aspect ratios are 4:3 (1.33:1), universal for standard-definition video formats, and 16:9 (1.78:1), universal to high-definition television and European digital television. Other cinema and video aspect ratios exist, but are used infrequently. As of 2010^[update], nominally 21:9 (2.33) aspect TVs have been introduced by Philips and Vizio (the latter using an LCD from AU Optronics) as "cinema" displays, though the resolution is more precisely 2560×1080 = 2.37, and the aspect ratio is not standardized in HDTV.

In still camera photography, the most common aspect ratios are 4:3, 3:2, and more recently being found in consumer cameras 16:9^[2]. Other aspect ratios, such as 5:4, 6:7, and 1:1 (square format), are used in photography as well, particularly in medium format and large format.

With television, DVD and Blu-ray, converting formats of unequal ratios is achieved by either: enlarging the original image (by the same factor in both directions) to fill the receiving format's display area and cutting off any excess picture information (zooming and cropping), by adding horizontal mattes (letterboxing) or vertical mattes (pillarboxing) to retain the original format's aspect ratio, or (for TV and DVD) by stretching (hence distorting) the image to fill the receiving format's ratio, by scaling by different factors in both directions, possibly scaling by a different factor in the center and at the edges (as in Wide Zoom mode).

Contents

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• <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1">

1 Practical Limitations <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" sizset="1" sizcache="0">2 Cinema terminology

• 2.1 Movie camera systems

<LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" sizset="2" sizcache="0">3 Current video standards

• <LI class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5">

3.1 4:3 standard <LI class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" sizset="3" sizcache="0">3.2 16:9 standard

• <LI class="toclevel-3 tocsection-7">

3.2.1 Why 16:9 was chosen by the SMPTE <LI class="toclevel-3 tocsection-8">3.2.2 16:9 in Europe <LI class="toclevel-3 tocsection-9">3.2.3 16:9 in Asia3.2.4 16:9 in Oceania 3.2.5 16:9 in the United States

<LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12">4 Obtaining height, width and area of the screen <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13">5 Distinctions <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14">6 Visual comparisons <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15">7 Previous and presently used aspect ratios <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-16" sizset="4" sizcache="0">8 Aspect ratio releases

• <LI class="toclevel-2 tocsection-17">

8.1 Original aspect ratio (OAR)8.2 Modified aspect ratio (MAR)

<LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-19">9 Problems in film and television <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-20">10 Still photography <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-21">11 See also <LI class="toclevel-1 tocsection-22">12 References [*]13 External links

[davegee]

Andre,

THREE different AR Images have been used to show how each will look on any of FOUR different Monitor Aspect Ratios. It is NOT one single image.

I used 1080 high Images in each of the 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 ARs which is why there is a black border all around in the 16:10 (1920x1200) Monitor examples.

For completeness I should have included a 16:10 image BUT this was done a long time ago and has been posted here once before. My preference (at the moment) is for 16:9 and I put up with 16:9 images on my 16:10 (1920x1200) monitor.

My next monitor will be 1920x1080 BUT I don't anticipate changing it for some time.

DG