Olympus Pen EF, D.Zuiko f/3.5 28mm
Half-Frame Format Image Aspect Ratio
'Getting to know the half-frame 3:4 image aspect ratio'While most of us take pictures in the landscape or horizontal format, half-frame cameras are inherently designed to capture images in the portrait or vertical format. Half-frame cameras capture images in the 3:4 aspect, an uncommon ratio, seldom mentioned except maybe when talking about images that are a bit too fat, a ratio that is difficult to work with, or image frames that are difficult to fill effectively.
The film format for half-frame cameras is 24x18mm on a regular 135 film, which is half the size of a normal 35mm frame measuring 24x36 mm. With a half-frame camera, one can shoot and capture twice as many images on a standard roll of film - 48 shots on a 24-exposure roll, 72 shots on a 36-exposure roll, and so on.
![]() |
Olympus Pen EF |
On a simple point-and-shoot, the left hand will just be a support to hold the camera steady. With half-frames, this is the same stance you will be holding the camera with, the difference being that your image will still be shot in the vertical frame, rocksteady images in 3:4 image aspect ratio.
The scanned images, which was done by the processing lab, were post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3), and tweaked with edits including Auto Tone Correction, Brightness & Contrast, Gamma, Hue & Saturation, Sharpness & Blur, Unsharp Mask, Noise Reduction, and cropping of the doubled-scanned images into single images.
Resource Links:3 Reasons to Shoot Vertical Aspect Landscapes and 6 Tips on How to Shoot Them Understanding Image Aspect Ratio