One KOMODO shoot, multiple aspect ratios: design the crop before you roll

Resolution is not authorship

A 6144-pixel-wide source can support many delivery crops, but a technically possible crop may still be a bad composition. Faces can collide with UI overlays, eyelines can feel cramped and a carefully designed two-shot can collapse into disconnected singles.

Design for the delivery family

• Name the principal format first: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 or cinema widescreen.
• Use frame guides or an equivalent monitoring strategy for secondary outputs.
• Protect text-safe and interface-heavy regions when social delivery is contracted.
• Capture deliberate singles and details instead of assuming every wide master will crop vertically.
• Watch horizontal movement: a subject crossing a wide frame may leave a vertical crop almost immediately.

The smart use of 6K

Higher source resolution can create reframing margin in post, especially when the final file is lower resolution. Use that margin to refine composition or create alternate versions — not to postpone every framing decision until the edit.

Try it

The Field Lab Frame & Crop Planner calculates the largest centered crop that fits common delivery ratios and shows how much of the source pixel area remains.