Is there a best shape for photographs?

All our modern digital cameras have a pre-set format, i.e.. shape, for the photos they take: usually either 3:2 or 4:3 ratio.  For the non-mathematical, that can mean something like 4800 x 3600 pixels, or 6000 x 4000 pixels, or something else, depending on your camera’s sensor.  What’s interesting is that even though there are often alternatives in the camera menus (like 16:9, 1:1, 4:5, etc)  the default shape becomes built in to our thinking when we take photos.

One of the things I like to introduce people to in my photography workshops is that there are no rules when it comes to image shape. We are not limited to the format set by the camera manufacturers and with the various post-processing tools available to photographers, it’s easy to make our images whatever shape we want. The possibilities are endless - great!