The Square Root

The 'elegant square' is often a format of composition that is considered and used by fine art photographers and has its history in early medium format cameras. Nowadays it is achievable by use of more affordable digital cameras...

The square format is rather an elegant shape for a landscape photograph. It cleverly draws our attention to the subject in a more direct way than the classic 3:2 ratio, or the often meandering journey within a panorama. The eye seems to be drawn around the image in a more circular nature than in the rectangular formats.

You can only come to the morning through the shadows' - Staverton Railway Station. Stitched HDR from 3 sets of hand-held & rotationally panned &exposure-bracketed
RAWs in portrait format (each set at -1.5, 0.5, 2.5 ev) at f/8

Some images can be cropped from a 3:2 format, though consideration needs to be given when composing of how it will look when cropped to square format

(this was cropped from a 3:2 ratio image, but was from the outset composed to make a resulting square image)

A stitch in time...
Another option is to make two or three overlapping frames in portrait format (i.e. the camera tilted through 90% on the tripod from the classic landscape position) which will give you a larger format image, with only miniscule amounts of trimming to a square (in Photoshop or Lightroom). If the overlaps are of the order of 50% of the area of the adjacent images then planar motion style stitching options are more easily attainable using software such as Microsoft ICE, as opposed to rotational stitching (which gives a more cylindrically distorted view of the scene). A cheaper option than a dedicated medium format 6x6 camera for sure, especially if you want one with a digital back!

'Aune Legacy' this image consisted of three greatly overlapping frames in portrait format)

'The Little Planet of the Twilight' - a long exposure image, then 'mirrored' and converted to a 'polar panorama' in Photoshop CS2

The reflected polar panoramas, a.k.a. Little Planets I make on occasions result in square format images. They have a pleasing balance to them and in being square there is only 'graceful space around the subject.

'Nebulous Nocturne' - the last remnants of post sunset colour in the skies above Hope's Nose in Torbay, from Goodrington sands.

This was cropped from a 3:2 format photo Some long exposure & panned Intentional camera Movement or drag landscape images can again work well in this format. Their edgy abstract nature is here contained within the elegant square.

Why not have a go at making some square format photographs yourself?

As Huey Lewis once sang, "it's hip to be square!"

About the Author...

I am a Landscape Photographer based in Totnes, and feel incredibly lucky to have both Dartmoor National Park and the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so close to where I live. These stunning landscapes offer a wealth of inspiration to my creative explorations and studies. It has been very rewarding to have won awards for my work and for people to have attended my exhibitions. I am honoured that people from around the world have enjoyed my photographs enough to have bought prints to adorn their walls with, in a way of celebrating what these landscapes mean to them. In my photography, I aim to invite the viewer to step into the scene - to smell the ocean breeze, to hear the sounds of the gurgling whitewater racing over the boulders in the moorland, to want to reach out and touch the gnarled bark of the trees. and to relish in the stormlight that bathes the land in an enchanted ambience for a few evanescent moments...

www.philhemsley.co.uk