Square: The Digital Photographer’s Guide to the Square Format is the natural follow-up to Beyond Thirds. In Square, I delve deep into the mysteries of the square format. Before digital cameras, the only way you could use the square format (cropping excluded) was to buy a 6×6 medium format camera. Now, digital cameras have opened up the square format to anybody who doesn’t mind taking the trouble to crop their images in post-processing.

But using the square format isn’t simply a matter of cropping – there’s a lot more to it than that. The square format demands a new approach to composition. The rule-of-thirds (which readers of Beyond Thirds will know I’m not too fond of in the first place anyway) no longer applies. Instead the composition relies on aspects like shape, simplicity and balance.

Square explores the square format from the digital photographer’s perspective. It shows you how to use the square format on your camera, and how to make the most out of what I think of as the fine art photographer’s format. It’s illustrated throughout by my photos, and I’ve also interviewed the two film photographers, Matt Toynbee and Flavia Schaller, to explore their perspective on the square format.

Bundles

Buy Square bundled with Understanding Exposure – details here (scroll down to see the bundles).

Square

Title: Square: The Digital Photographer’s Guide to the Square Format

Length: 52 double page spreads

Words: approx 12,500

Price: £6

Note: Payment is handled by PayPal, but it’s easy to pay by credit or debit card if you don’t have a PayPal account. An option to pay by credit or debit card appears after you click the yellow ‘Checkout with PayPal’ button. If you don’t see the option to pay by credit/debit card, it’s most likely because you have recently logged into your PayPal account recently, in which case PayPal only displays the option to complete the purchase using your PayPal account.

Format: PDF. You can view Square using free Adobe reader software on any PC. You can also read Square on the iPad using iBooks – the ebook has been optimised for iPad viewing.

Contents:

• The history of the square format
• Going square
• Square subjects
• The 35mm problem
• Cropping square
• Design & balance
• Shape
• The four S’s
• Black & white
• Case study: Matt Toynbee
• Vertoramas
• A creative edge
• Framing
• Creative layout
• Diptyches & triptyches
• Instagram
• Holga lenses
• Case study: Flavia Schaller
• Appendix A: Cropping
• Appendix B: Vertorama tutorial
• Appendix C: Adding a black border