Advice and Recommendations for images you personally take to upload to the web OR plan on sending to your developer so they can use them on your website or social media.
Aspect Ratio
Definition - the proportional relationship between its width and its height. It is usually expressed like "16:9" (which is the shape of a HD TV Screen) or 1:1 (which is a square and the base ratio used on Instagram).
There are also two General Terms we use; the first being "Portrait" and the second being "Landscape". Portrait is an image that is higher than wide, like an image you would take holding with your SmartPhone in vertical position. Landscape is wider than high, like your PC monitor, Movie Screen or TV screen.
We all know that snapping a picture with our SmartPhone is more natural and quicker to just snap while in Portrait Mode (holding your phone vertical like most all of us do) BUT you should be taking pictures in Landscape (horizontal) mode. Although a portrait type picture snapped on your SmartPhone may look ok to you when viewing it on your own SmartPhone, the web and most apps are based on Landscape type images. When uploaded to the web or editing in some way, your portrait type image will A.) most likely be cropped or scaled down and B.) when taking a picture in portrait mode it's very "thin" and other humans can't see what's going on. Since our human eye aspect ratio is about 5:3 (which is Landscape), we prefer to view wider images.
Take a look at the graphic on the left (or top if on a mobile device) and you can visibly see how a Landscape type image works better in so many ways. I know it's a slight pain to take an image in Landscape mode on your SmartPhone but by taking it Landscape it can be manipulated and presented so much better.
