What is aspect ratio?

After discussing aspect ratios with photographers many times, it’s become apparent that it still confuses many people, which is why we have produced this easy-to-understand document. The first step is knowing what ratio your camera is using, so find out if you don’t already know – ‘full frame’ (2:3) or ‘cropped frame’ (3:4 or 4:5)?

Aspect ratios are extremely important to understand when you have a fully automated high-volume photography workflow that includes a webstore. There should be no need for manual cropping if you and your photographers get this right.

Aspect ratio describes the ratio between the height and width of an image.

Print sizes below (inches) according to the aspect ratio of an image

How images are affected in the Netlife webshop by different ratio print sizes

When using the Netlife Platform, it’s important to understand how your photographs will appear in the webshop when shooting with a ‘full frame’ camera (2:3 aspect ratio). This can also be reverse-engineered if you are shooting with a ‘cropped frame’.

Leaving enough headroom in your images will allow you to use multiple print ratios, as shown below. You can see how the image is automatically adjusted in the webshop.

‘Dynamic templates’ allow parents to reposition the image within the print area. However, parents may not always realise this, which can lead to issues such as cropped heads – even if warnings are shown at checkout. This is why it’s best to foresee and eliminate potential issues before they occur.

Below is how a ‘full frame image’ (Ratio 2:3) will be cropped in the Netlife webshop when 3:4 and 4:5 ratio print sizes are used.

Hope this helps to clarify a few things for you!

Thanks to our colleague Harri for prepping this information!

Cheers,

Glen