Which photo format to use?

[LorenzoPUD]

Hello Volks!

I have recently bought a camera where you can select different options for the format of the photo: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1.

I would like to know if Alamy accepts every format of photos and if you can suggest to me which format is the best for a common use by Alamy's customers and why.

Thank you, regards

Lorenzo

[Allan Bell]

Hello, I use the native 3:2 which most cameras are set to initially. This setting is the equivalent size of the 35mm film which was commonly used in the industry. Other formats were available but I do not think they were used so much.

 

Sometime I crop images to different sizes to suit the image and all af these are acceptable to Alamy. They also take panorama and images too.

 

Allan

 

[Harry Harrison]

Bear in mind that if your camera is Micro 4/3 you'll be cropping some of the available pixels to get to the 3:2 format.  If you shoot RAW rather than jpeg (or jpeg + RAW) then you can always crop afterwards anyway. My cameras are 3:2 native but I sometimes crop to 4:3 it suits the image. In the days of film it was the more expensive medium format film cameras that shot at around the 4:3 format, 6x7, 645, or even 5"x4" sheet film. All are acceptable really. 

 

There is an 'Image' search filter dropdown on the Alamy main search page for Portrait, Landscape, Panoramic and Square. Portrait & Landscape are obvious but 'Panoramic' means that the ratio has to be 2:1 or narrower. 'Square' seems more flexible, it seems to include images that aren't strictly square, the cut-off looks to be around 1.2:1 but it's pretty hard to say precisely without looking at loads of them and doing the maths.

[Joe Gaul]

I would use the largest available sensor area. When I shoot aps-c it's 3:2 when micro 4/3 that's what it is, but do crop for various reasons.

[M.Chapman]

Perhaps more important than the image format ratio are the following IMHO

• Customers sometimes crop the image to suit their requirement so it can be useful to allow space around the main subject. This also allows for text or titles to be overlaid (copy space). 
• It's worth including portrait and landscape format shots. Portrait format is often best suited for magazine covers for example.

Mark

Edited October 11, 2021 by M.Chapman

[meanderingemu]

Just yesterday the Alamy Content twitter feed was asking people to produce vertical images

 

 

 

One caveat, to date the Account has always refused to even address questions if their suggestions, requests or featured images have ever had success or demand from customers- they are in fact dismissive of such query, so make what you want. 

[sb photos]

4 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

One caveat, to date the Account has always refused to even address questions if their suggestions, requests or featured images have ever had success or demand from customers- they are in fact dismissive of such query, so make what you want. 

The likely reason for most image requests is that Alamy have run a report showing they are under represented in certain subjects or formats. 
 

Personally, when the subject is suitable, or with people, I always try to shoot in both landscape and portrait.

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, sb photos said:

The likely reason for most image requests is that Alamy have run a report showing they are under represented in certain subjects or formats. 
 

Personally, when the subject is suitable, or with people, I always try to shoot in both landscape and portrait.

 

i am forcing myself to think vertical more. 

 

 

my issue with the Content team account is they also have things like "Picture of the month", putt "specific images".  For example this month "We want you to get creative by looking for lines. Horizontal, vertical, curved ",  but when queries of how much demand there is they just dismiss it.  It seems the role is not work on Content for what customers require, so not sure i see the point.  Since i now had to pay 20% more for these features, i want them to have value.