Are we cropping our landscape perspective to meet someone else’s expectations? Is our horizon shrinking? Are artists adapting to new opportunities or compromising their vision to fit the expectations of social?
In a world where we carry high-powered cameras in our pockets, we easily assume that our ability to capture landscapes has never been better. However, social media platforms encourage and for some, even dictate the way we frame and share images.
How is this impacting our innate perspectives and artistry? Are we literally creating and then cropping our 3×2, 5×4 or 16×9 work to fit within their pre-defined boxes? Or are we even forgoing the landscape view at the onset because it may not perform as well on social?
The rise of the 4×5 aspect ratio, a format favored by social media platforms for its vertical efficiency, appears to subtly reshape the way we see and share the world around us.
“If we’re adjusting our art to meet the social aspect ratio, then, is it possible we’re modifying our creative work for the micro seconds of viewing the social algorithm gives our posts? Is that the same thing as a wrecking ball hitting our innate perspective?”
Sheen Watkins
When scrolling through Instagram’s social feed, many images and videos are cropped to fit their format. While this is not a bad thing, many of the art, photography that people of all ages post and consume, feel force-fed into an artificial boundary.
There is no right or wrong answer – right? If that is the perspective you prefer, then keep creating the way that works for you. It is your art. Plus, there are always images where the 4×5, or either, are the right orientations for our work.
However, if we’re adjusting our art to meet the social aspect ratio, then, is it possible we’re modifying our creative work for the micro seconds of viewing the social algorithm gives our posts?
Cropping our Landscape Perspective – our National Parks in 4×5?
Imagine standing at the edge of the Bryce Canyon National Park, taking in the vast expanse before you. The sheer breadth of the horizon and depth of the mountain range. The way the sky melts into the depths of the landscape. Experiencing its full, sweeping glory pulls you in to the big world, the big view.
Now, imagine capturing and sharing that scene in a 4×5 frame as in below. Suddenly, grandeur is compressed, edges cut off, depth minimized. The cropped image no longer tells the full story. Instead, it tells only a version, cropped and edited to meet the constraints of a digital feed.
Are We Losing the Bigger Picture by Cropping our Landscape Perspective?
Photography has always been a way to frame reality, to distill vast scenes into digestible moments. But today, rather than choosing an aspect ratio based on artistic intent, many photographers—amateurs and professionals alike—shift their cropping to what performs well on social media. There are times where I’ve cropped my image for these confines. When viewing those cropped images later, many times the view feels so much smaller than reality.
As a drone photographer, it is a rush to see the landscape with a birds eye view. That view isn’t a 4 X5. It’s even wider! Cropping these bigger views almost in half? Not unless the scene calls for that orientation for an optimum view.
The 4×5 crop dominates platforms like Instagram because it takes up more screen real estate, making it more likely to capture attention in the endless scroll. The downside is it forces a certain way of seeing, encouraging tighter framing and discouraging panoramic breadth.
The image above was cropped from an original 16 X 9 perspective to a 3 X 2. Here’s that same image in a 4 X 5:
Is Cropping our Landscape Perspective Tainting how we Look at Landscapes?
Social media undeniably makes it easier than ever to share our perspectives with the world. But when convenience overrides creativity, do we risk narrowing our vision?
Landscapes are about space, about breadth, about immersion. Reducing them to fit within a format optimized for mobile viewing changes the way we document the world. Imagine the Star Wars movies, or any movie in a 4×5 format. The images below are from a filming location for one of the Star Wars movies.
Our viewers, young and old, also lose a perception of reality. Our two eyes working together give us a 180 degree view. A single eye is 130 degrees. Definitely not a 4 X 5 Perspective. When recently observing a family taking selfies and images at a visitor area, the selfies were 4 x 5 which makes perfect sense. It is about the people.
However, the same people turn around and take landscape views of these big horizons with their phones in 4 X 5 view. They miss the vastness of the vistas, the big artistry of nature.
Expanding Our View
As photographers, artists, and lovers of the outdoors, are we capturing the world as it is? Or, are we conforming to a template designed for engagement metrics rather than artistic integrity? Next time you reach for your camera—whether it’s a DSLR, a film camera, or a smartphone—consider the horizon. Consider the story. Consider resisting the automatic urge to crop to fit a feed.
Without the camera or phone in hand, what do you see? What interests you? Follow your artistic instinct and apply the perspective that reflects your what your eye sees and heart feels.
Because the world isn’t only 4×5. It’s wide, it’s vast, and it’s worth seeing and sharing in its full perspective.
My previous blog shares how social shapes our behaviors as photographers and artists: Framing the Future: Is Social Media Transforming Our Photography
