Frame Guides

Overlay aspect ratio guides on any lens test image to see exactly how a lens renders within your target delivery format.

Frame Guides overlay aspect ratio markers directly on top of lens test imagery, so you can instantly see how a lens renders within your target delivery format. Whether you're shooting 2.39:1 scope, 1.85:1 flat, or any other ratio — you can visualise the crop in real time without leaving the test view. This is essential for evaluating edge behaviour, vignetting, and flare placement within the area that will actually be seen on screen.

🎬 Pending video: Frame Guides overview video — coming soon

The Frame Guides button appears in the toolbar on lens detail test views, the Compare page, and the Discover page. Look for the rectangle icon labelled "Guides". When active, the button turns teal and shows a small indicator dot. Click it to open the controls — select a primary aspect ratio, optionally add a secondary guide, and adjust the blanking opacity to your liking.

You can set a primary aspect ratio (shown in teal) and optionally enable a secondary guide in amber. This is useful for comparing two delivery formats at once — for example, a 2.39:1 theatrical crop against a 16:9 streaming version. Both guides overlay simultaneously with independently adjustable settings, making it easy to evaluate how a lens performs across different release formats without changing anything.

🖼️ Pending image: Screenshot showing primary and secondary frame guides overlaid on test imagery

The blanking opacity slider controls how strongly the areas outside your chosen frame are dimmed. At full opacity, the out-of-frame regions are completely black — mimicking a hard matte as you'd see on a cinema screen. At lower values, you can still see the full lens image while getting a clear sense of the crop boundary. This lets you evaluate whether interesting optical behaviours like edge flare or vignetting fall inside or outside your target frame.

🖼️ Pending image: Screenshot comparing low and high blanking opacity settings

Frame Guides persist across lens pages, Compare views, and Discover — once you set a ratio, it stays active as you navigate between lenses. This makes it easy to evaluate multiple lenses against the same delivery format without reconfiguring each time. The guides also work inside the fullscreen viewer, so you get the same overlay at every zoom level.

🖼️ Pending image: Screenshot of frame guides active in the fullscreen viewer

The current preset list covers the most common cinema and broadcast formats: 2.39:1 (Scope), 2:1, 1.85:1 (Flat), 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1. These cover the vast majority of theatrical, streaming, and social media deliverables. The guide lines position themselves automatically based on the test image's own aspect ratio.

🖼️ Pending image: Screenshot of the full aspect ratio preset list

Frame Guides are especially valuable when evaluating anamorphic lenses. Since anamorphic glass is designed for wider aspect ratios, overlaying a 2.39:1 or 2:1 guide lets you see the intended framing and how the squeeze factor places optical effects like oval bokeh and horizontal flare within the final image. Pair this with the Crop & Coverage tool for a complete picture.

🖼️ Pending image: Screenshot of frame guides on an anamorphic lens test