WIDE

Widescreen is spreading. In film, it means any aspect ratio wider than Academy (1.37:1), but in television and computer screens, the arrival of HDTV has made 16:9 the most popular format. And as directors of photography know, wide is a very attractive format in which to compose. Sometimes, the shapes and lines in a scene just want to take the frame wide, and one of the very good benefits of digital shooting and content-recognition software is that you can simply swing the camera to one side for another frame that will stitch seamlessly and painlessly with the first. Some cameras even have built-in panoramic stitching. This scene on a beach, on the Indonesian island of Billiton, encouraged a wide perspective with the curved canoe on its side. ...

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