The other day, I was working on a photograph using Adobe Photoshop when I realized something. While cropping a photo, my first instinct was to wonder: “How would it look on my Instagram grid?” Recently, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, made the grid take a slightly different aspect ratio, which has made most of the subjects of my older pictures go out of the thumbnail on the grid altogether. That made me ponder a bit on how photography, aspect ratios, and cropping have changed over time.
I started my photography journey 21 years ago with a Nikon Coolpix camera with a 3x zoom. There was then only one criterion for what fit my definition of a good photograph—something I could use as a wallpaper on my computer screen. I would read voraciously about photography and forced my compositions to fit the rule of thirds. It wasn’t easy to get used to. I would discard photos because I was impatient with the composition and let the horizon slant in a direction or place it in the center of the frame. People and animate subjects, which would never stick to the intersection of the thirds, triggered my OCD. Then, one day, I had an epiphany: I could crop images!
When I discovered cropping in MS Paint, I was overjoyed. I could compose AFTER I had made the photograph. As I discovered better image-editing tools, I realized I could even correct tilts! I felt empowered, I felt I had grown wings. It was so liberating that it almost felt like cheating. I started getting more keepers as I could focus more on the moment than obsess about composition.
When I got serious about bird photography, I realized that getting the rule of thirds or golden ratio right in the camera was near impossible. Most birds were specks in the frame of the 8 megapixel sensor of my D80 as all I could afford was a 300mm f4 lens. Also, the center-focusing point was the fastest in the camera, which meant birds in flight would always be in the center of the frame. But cropping again came to the rescue. I could simply readjust the crop to place the bird in whatever direction I wanted to ensure it looks masterfully composed.
I would painstakingly crop most of my initial photographs to adhere to the fundamentals of photography. The rule of thirds, the golden ratio, and the golden spiral. I used these diligently so I could defend my composition in the photography forum I was part of at Infosys. But slowly, I found out that the most impactful images were the ones where I mindfully broke those rules. The images where I knew the rules did not work well. Since then, my style of photography (pompous as that may sound, I have a style) has always included a bit of the elements, or a lot of them.
Soon, photography forums like Flickr and 500px started becoming popular. That is when I noticed that sticking to airy compositions did not augur well for popularity in nature photography. The photos that got a louder applause were the ones where the subject was cropped tight with little space around. Composition never got any brownie points in these forums. I could never get close shots with my 300 mm lens, so I had no choice but to continue composing. This did nothing to widen my audience. I turned snooty and disillusioned, maintaining that art was dying due to people who would shoot the eyeballs of subjects with longer lenses and tighter crops.
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When the age of Facebook came, I retained my style through more rule-of-thirds crops. I would place the core of the subject at the intersection of the thirds, leaving some space on the other side, depending on which way the subject faced it. Theoretically, this should create a sense of anticipation in the direction of the negative space. I was a late adopter of Instagram, and I struggled to get any visibility when I got on. The images following the rule of thirds would have the subject cut off unceremoniously on the grid. I started with some “fit for Instagram” cropping with a 1×1 aspect ratio, but it was so dissatisfying. I also tried putting some frames around the picture so that the photo maintained its essence in the grid, but that made the grid look so off-putting.
I (as well as many of us) am fortunately at a point in my life where a longer lens is affordable. The relatively shorter telephoto lens I have right now (a 500mm f5.6) is by choice. This forces me to compose more and can avoid the temptation of tighter crops.
Recently, I did sell my soul to the devil, though, deciding to settle on a happy medium with Instagram. I started positioning the subject’s eyes on the top or bottom 1/3rd, towards the middle so that the grids feature at least part of its head. It reassures me that I still follow the rule of compositions in some way or the other. Of late, I have noticed that this gives the images a bit more balance compared to the older images, where the bird was purely to one side of the frame.
I still do not have the best looking grid, but heck, I think I am allowed to retain some dignity. This is the most I could compromise without giving up my integrity. Or, that is as much I will let Zuck influence my style that I painstakingly developed over 20 years of shooting with a relatively lower reach.
Discover Sandy’s experiments with composition and framing on Instagram
Sandy loves to photograph birds and landscapes, and considers photography and writing as his meditation. Now based out of the US, Sandy juggles his time between parental duties, a full time engineering role, writing short fiction in Malayalam, and an occasional birding trip thrown in between. His debut novel in Malayalam hits the bookstalls in January 2025.
Sandy can be found at instagram as @footprintsonlight
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