Choose the shape
A square is useful when the composition can be organised around a compact subject or balanced group. It removes the directional emphasis of a wide or tall frame, but it may also discard the context that made a rectangular photograph work.
| Property | Example |
|---|---|
| Matching pixels | 2000 × 2000 |
| Example print sizes | 4 × 4, 8 × 8, 12 × 12 inches |
| Rotation | The shape remains square |
Fill the frame
A 6000 × 4000 landscape image filling a square retains 4000 × 4000 pixels. It removes one-third of the original area. A centred crop discards 1000 pixels on each side; moving the crop can protect either edge without changing the retained size.
Keep the whole photo
Keep that whole photo inside an 8 × 8 inch square and the image becomes 8 × 5⅓ inches, with 1⅓-inch borders above and below. The original image is unchanged in shape. At this placement it has 750 PPI, while the 4000-pixel square crop at 8 inches has 500 PPI.
What the ratio cannot tell you
Square prints at 4 × 4, 8 × 8, and 16 × 16 use the same ratio, but the effective PPI changes with size. A crop approved for a small square does not establish how sharp a larger print will look.