Square is a perfectly balanced shape. Each side is equal in length. Using the square format urges the eye to move around the frame in a circle.
Negative space is the term used to describe the empty space in an image around the subject. Composition is often improved by getting closer to the subject. But sometimes you can create atmosphere or emphasise the shape of the subject by including negative space around it. In the rectangular frame, this can be difficult to do because there would be a lot of empty space. But using negative space can be very effective in the square format.
Before digital you really needed a 6x6cm format medium camera to use square format. The only way to achieve square format was to crop a 35mm negative in a darkroom. Although this was possible you wouldn’t be able to match the image quality of a medium format negative. Digital cameras have made square format available to everyone. Nowadays you can shoot in rectangle and crop to square in post-processing and some cameras also let you use the square format in-camera or even in the viewfinder on some cameras.
The Instagram app has also made the square format really user friendly. Some people transfer their images that they have already taken and use Instagram to process and crop them. As Smartphone cameras have improved over the last few years the square format has really become popular as people share their images using the Instagram app.
Before digital you really needed a 6x6cm format medium camera to use square format. The only way to achieve square format was to crop a 35mm negative in a darkroom. Although this was possible you wouldn’t be able to match the image quality of a medium format negative. Digital cameras have made square format available to everyone. Nowadays you can shoot in rectangle and crop to square in post-processing and some cameras also let you use the square format in-camera or even in the viewfinder on some cameras.
The Instagram app has also made the square format really user friendly. Some people transfer their images that they have already taken and use Instagram to process and crop them. As Smartphone cameras have improved over the last few years the square format has really become popular as people share their images using the Instagram app.
Toy cameras like the Holga and Diana have also made square format a popular image choice. Lomography has become a popular hobby and people are enjoying creating artistic images without the use of Photoshop.
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