While I was setting up a scene, I found a viewing angle that was perfect for the final render. I hit ctrl alt 0 to set the camera to the viewport. The angles match but the render area isn't the same.

Here's the viewport view

And here's the camera

You can see a lot around the edges of the image in the viewport that you can't in the render. I tried changing the aspect ratio, but it still won't show the sides no matter what changes I make. The focal distance of the 2 matches. Is there another setting I'm missing? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

In the future, you'll always need to set up a scene for rendering from the camera view, not the perspective view. The camera focal length and aspect ratio will not be able to capture the entire viewport perspective view without moving the camera, adjusting the focal length or the camera sensor width. When setting up the scene for rendering, always view the scene through the camera, and use the "lock camera to view" to move around the scene from the camera viewpoint.

In this case, you will probably have to either move the camera back more to capture what you want in the scene and/or make some adjustments to the focal length. Aspect ratio probably won't help here.

PS: It appears you can capture more of the sides of this render. The X Y resolution seems to be very square. If you switch the render dimensions to HD 1080p it should give you more of the scene on either side, but you'll still need to move the camera back.

Go to Output Properties in the right-hand tabs panel and check what your render dimensions are. Use the HD TV 1080p Preset, and you'll get more of the scene in the render.

Here's an example. You'll need to change the dimensions to get a wider view area, and possibly still move camera back.

It's a 16:9 view ratio vs. a 4:3 view ratio that you have now.

Okay, thanks. I'll work on it.

I was gonna suggest changing your camera view to 16x9 because it looks like 4x3, but lux beat me to it i guess. If you change it to 16x9 ratio, then it should match the viewport better because the viewport is also 16x9 aspect ratio. Definitely use the camera view when you are preparing for a render because that's the only way to get a accurate view of the scene. Perspective is just a faster way to arrange the objects and stuff without changing the camera. Think of perspective view as looking through a director's own eyes, but then the director must always set up the scene seperately through the camera itself for shooting.

Thanks. Changing the ratio helped a little and I did get the camera to look how I wanted, but then I decided I didn't like that image. But it's a learning experience for next time.

HMorton posted at 4:17PM Sat, 19 June 2021 - #4421573

Think of perspective view as looking through a director's own eyes, but then the director must always set up the scene seperately through the camera itself for shooting.

Hmm. I really like that analogy. That's an excellent way to explain it. If you've ever worked on a film set, you'll notice that the director is constantly referring to the monitors, looking through the camera views via the monitor, then adjusting actors, props and lighting according to how it looks through the cameras. Makes perfect sense that we should do the same when rendering through physical-based cameras and lenses in CG. The perspective and ortho views are useful for the initial staging and lighting of a scene, but then when rendering is imminent, the rest should be finalized through the camera view.