Our aspect ratio has been trending towards wider sizes for a while, and that makes perfect sense. However, should we get rid of the former mostly aspect ratio for good? Does it have any use?
Anyone who grew up in the ’90s knows that 4:3 aspect ratio is how you use your TV. All the programming is done in it and your giant box TV is done in 4:3. I didn’t wonder about that format at the time, but when we switched to HD, usually 16:10, I realized that it made sense given the shape of the human eye. Well, maybe it’s not logical.
When I watched this Vuhlandes video, I really liked the way it looked but couldn’t explain why. Yes, he’s an excellent cinematographer and every shot is great in this regard, but I like the 4:3 aspect ratio even though my monitor is 16:10. I’m still not sure what’s so appealing about it—perhaps it’s simply not normal for me now—but it prompted me to test my “logic” and see that the human eye has an estimated aspect ratio. count as 5:3.
In this video, Vuhlandes presents some of his 4:3 work and how he thinks that improves the results. Some commenters pointed out that it looks great on a tablet, which makes sense since the iPad is 4:3. For instance, could we see more mobile devices tending towards 4:3 aspect ratio rather than iPhone’s harsher 16:9 ratio?
