Shooting to a specific format other than your camera’s native aspect ratio isn’t always an easy task. Here’s how to fix that with a piece of card, a printer, a cutting tool, and a few minutes.

Shooting to format

Often when shooting for clients you’ll be required to “shoot to a specific format”: it might be an 8.5×11″ for a full page in a magazine, a 11×14″ wall portrait, a facebook banner at 851×315 px, or just a 16:9 wide image, with no final dimensions provided, to insert stills into video. These seemingly random numbers define either the output size of the image (in y x z units), or an aspect ratio – the ratio between your image width w and height h, expressed in w:h.

In reality, the output size can also be considered an aspect ratio: just strip away the units. In some cases, you might have to divide both numbers by a common factor to get to the lowest possible integers, e.g., an 8×10″ uses the 4:5 aspect ratio (both values divided by 2). And obviously, the difference between a 4:5 and a 5:4 is the camera orientation!

Since these are all completely different to the traditional 3:2 aspect ratio of most DSLRs or 4:3 of m4/3’s cameras, knowing how much to crop, or how to create your composition to fit the final crop can be quite challenging. Shooting tethered is probably the best away around this problem, but it isn’t always practical to do so.

Some cameras attempt to make this task easier by providing a few built-in crop modes, such as 4:3 or 5:4, complete with viewfinder masks to help with composition. Some others, such as the Leica D-Lux Typ 109 / Panasonic LX100, use different sensor areas to provide a few native aspect ratios, giving you as many pixels as possible in the final file while still keeping the overall camera size “pocketable”.

But what happens if you’re stuck with a camera that doesn’t have these features, or you need something different than the built-in formats and aspect ratios?

In the following video we show you a simple solution to this problem:

Matte frames

As we’ve said in the video, at the bottom of this post you’ll find a few pre-made free templates you can download and use. But if your camera isn’t on the list or you need different aspect ratios than the ones provided in the templates, then watch the second video and carry on reading:

Creating your own matte frames

Creating your own matte frames is easy:

• Step 1 – Measure the real maximum image size on your camera’s screen;
• Step 2 – Calculate the cutout dimensions according to the aspect ratio you need;
• Step 3 – Draw or print a rectangle with those dimensions on a piece of thick stock and cut it out.

Step 1 – Measuring

To make sure you’re using as much screen real estate as possible, and consequently the biggest output file size with no unnecesssary cropping, it is advisable to use matte frames that are matched to your LCD’s image size.

Measuring it is really easy: take a photo of something bright (don’t worry about focus or correct exposure – just make it really bright), then scroll through the view modes to find the one that gives you the biggest possible image – that’s the mode you will want to use your matte frame with; grab your ruler and measure both width and height of the image (be careful not to scratch the LCD!).

Use the edges of the frame as guide to avoid measuring in diagonals and be as precise as you can, but there’s no need to overdo it. Write down these numbers, as you’ll need them in step 2.

Step 2 – Calculating the cutout

The maths involved are quite simple, and to make them even simpler we’ve created a Google spreadsheet for you: just plug in your image measurements from Step 1 and desired aspect ratio and it’ll calculate your matte frame dimensions automatically.

If you still want to know the maths behind this, or don’t have access to Google Sheets, grab a calculator and read on:

We’ll start by finding out the aspect ratio of your camera. Take the numbers you’ve measured in Step 1 and divide the width by the height. If you’re shooting with a DSLR, it should be 1.5 or *very* close to it (3:2). If it’s a m4/3 camera, it should be 1.33 or again, really close to it (4:3). If not, make sure your measurement procedure was correct.

Now we need to find out if the desired aspect ratio is wider or taller than your camera’s native aspect ratio. In most cases it’s quite easy to eyeball it, but for the harder cases, simply divide the largest of the two numbers by the smallest one. If this number is larger than the one you got for your camera, it’s wider; if it’s smaller, it’s squarer. If it’s the same, you don’t need a matte frame! 😉

To calculate the cutout:

• if your desired aspect ratio is wider than your camera’s native aspect ratio, the width of the cutout is the same you measured in Step 1; find the height of the cutout by multiplying this width by the smaller number in the desired aspect ratio and then dividing by the big one:
  – example: if your image is 6 x 4 cm and you want a 16:9 aspect ratio, the cutout’s height is 6 x 9 / 16 = 3.4 cm; final dimensions: 6 x 3.4 cm;

• if on the other hand, the desired aspect ratio is more square than your camera, the height will be the same as you measured in Step 1; to find the width, you’ll have to go the other way around and multiply the image height by the bigger number in the desired aspect ratio and then divide by the smaller one:
  – example: the same image size, 6 x 4 cm, but this time with a 14×11 aspect ratio; the width will be 4 / 14 x 11 = 5.1 cm; final dimensions: 5.1 x 4 cm

• and obviously, if you want a square 1:1 ratio, the width of the cutout is going to be the same as your image’s measured height.

Note: If you use the imperial system rather than metric, the principle still applies: since the aspect ratio doesn’t need units, the output units are going to be the same you used as the input.

Step 3 – Drawing and cutting the matte

This step is fairly obvious: take the numbers you got in Step 2, draw or use your favourite design software to print a rectangle with these dimensions on a piece of card that’s at least 1/2″ larger in all directions, and cut the rectangle out – and there’s your brand new matte frame.

The goodies: free matte frame templates

As promised, we’ve created a few PDFs with matte frame templates for the following aspect ratios:

• 1.618:1 – golden ratio
• 16:9 – HDTV
• 2.35:1 – cinemascope
• 851:315 – facebook banner
• 5:4
• 11:8.5
• 4:3
• 1:1 – square

If your camera is on the following list, just click the repective link to download your free PDF:

• Canon 5D v.1.2 | 2015.11.18
• Canon 7D v.1.2 | 2015.07.26
• Nikon D7000 v.1.2 | 2015.07.26
• Nikon D7100 v.1.2 | 2015.07.26

Print on A4 or Letter sized thick stock, cut along the dotted lines, and you’re good to go! If your camera isn’t on the list, just leave us a comment with your camera make, model, and image dimensions (measured according to step 1 above) and we’ll create a template for you.

UPDATE: the original templates for the Nikon D7000 and D7100 had errors on the 4:3, 11:8.5 and 5:4 ratios. They were fixed on v.1.1 | 2015.07.23, so please download them again and use the new ones. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Changelog:

• v.1.2 | 2015.07.26 – Reworked layout for easier printing on Letter size paper
• v.1.1 | 2015.07.23 – Added Canon 7D; fixed wrong dimensions on D7000 and D7100
• v.1.0 | 2015.07.21 – Initial release with Nikon D7000 and D7100