Square Format Photography with The Ricoh GR III
Square Format: The Underrated Hack for Beginners
If you’re just dipping your toes into street photography with your Ricoh GR III (or any point-and-shoot), there’s a simple aspect format hack to sharpen your eye faster than obsessing over gear settings and presets: shoot square format.
Beginners especially spend a lot of time fussing about focal lengths, shutter speeds, and color profiles but photography is about taking photos, telling stories and creating compositions. Shooting with a 1:1 square format aspect ratio is a great way of supporting you to frame more efficiently in those early days but even as an experienced photographer I find it a fun ratio to shoot.
Why the Square Format Works
Simplicity reigns
The square forces balance. You don’t have the horizontal sprawl of 3:2 or 4:3, so your subject gets pulled into the center, or you start feeling out symmetry intuitively. Either way, it cleans up your composition.
It trains your instinct
You’ll start to see lines, patterns, and negative space without even trying. The square almost nags you to tidy up your frame and it’ll feel natural and like there’s less ways for you to go wrong.
Ricoh GR III Street Photography Tricks: Setting Up for Square
The Ricoh GR III makes this ridiculously easy. Here’s how you dial it in:
Access the Ricoh Menu. Then camera gear icon. Then scroll to aspect ratio settings and select 1:1.
Combine that with Snap Focus if that’s your preference and you’re basically locked, loaded, and friction-free. The Barbican Centre is a cool as any place in London to put this aspect ration into practice with its brutalist geometry, you’ll start seeing potential for great frames everywhere.(By the way, my video below shows exactly how I set up my Ricoh GR III for this, plus POV clips shooting around the Barbican. Worth a watch.)
WATCH
Square Format Meets the Barbican Centre
If you ever need a playground for lines and brutal symmetry, the Barbican Centre is it. Concrete stairwells, repeating arches, tight corridors — all of it comes alive in the square.
Look for leading lines that pull the eye dead center.
Use negative space. Let half the frame breathe.
Where to place your subject within the frame will feel more obvious
You’ll start spotting compositions that just wouldn’t work in 3:2. It’s like unlocking a new level.
My iPhone Square Series (though not all square)
I also shoot a lot of square format on my iPhone. Same rules apply, same playful exploration. I put together a whole post of these images so you can see how it translates across devices.
iPhone Street Photography - A Shift in Perception
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Key Takeaways
Square format photography simplifies composition & sharpens your eye.
Ricoh GR III street photography tricks: use Snap Focus + 1:1 crop for fast, intuitive shots.
Barbican Centre is a dream stage for this style.
Watch the video & see exactly how to do it.
Check out my iPhone blog article for for more point and shoot images.
