To Square Format or Not

I'm going to be honest, I've never been a fan of the square photo format. That said, I've been going through some concert photos recently and stumbled on some photos that I did not really care for. Here is one of them.

So in this image I like the shot of the guitar player. What I don't like is what is going on in the left of this image. I decided to make a square (or 1x1 ratio) edit and came up with the following.

I like this much better. In addition, the image does not go to waste because now I can use it on Instagram. 

Here is another image I don't really like.

As you can see, and maybe it's just my opinion, there is too much dead space on the left and right. Once again, let's look at a square edit.

I like this edit much better!

Now the next shot I like in it's original format more than the square format. Take a look.

Now to me both images are good but I prefer the original format shot of the two.

My goal in photography is to shoot images that could be used in print format, even though I don't print a lot of images. So my preference is to shoot in the rectangular format of the image and not square. 

If I learned anything from this, it's to consider more than the original image format, especially in this digital age where we are not locked into specific image formats.

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!

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