On the official web app you used to show photos in their native aspect ratio (normal, not advanced layout). Starting at maybe 4.7 you limited taller photos, cutting off tops and bottoms until the photo is clicked to show full size. Don’t like this at all as sometimes a critical/interesting portion of the image is cut off in the preview.
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I can see how if the image had an aspect ratio of 1000:1 it would effectively be a denial of service against the rest of the feed, but I heartily agree I in general want to see the whole thing!
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Yes, reasonable limits should be imposed. Somewhere around the max viewport height. We can arm wrestle over what that means later 
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Any example? Might be helpful for others to support your case.
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Any mildly vertical image will demonstrate the effect. But I think this one illustrates it nicely…
Link to post:
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Quite an edge case though. I don’t see many images that problematic on the platform.
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I see it a bit differently.
There are many organizations who do cross-promote their sharepics on multiple platforms at the same time. In particular, images created primarily for Instagram (5:4, not square) cannot be seen in the original because of square- cropping.
It would become a significant extra effort for organizations to additionally design all their sharepics compliant for each platform.
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This is not an edge case, and this is the reason why I prefer the instances who don’t force a ratio to those who do. I wish we can have the option to turn off image ratio like we used to do.
Chopped heads on Mastodon 5.0.0
Chopping on Mastodon 4.7.3:
Not chopped heads on Mastodon+glitch 4.7.3:
Edit: added an image.
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Before demanding complex cropping algorithms, or asking the platform to abandon thumbnail cropping altogether to avoid awkward cuts, it is worth pointing out that Mastodon already has a built-in solution: the focal point selector.
When uploading an image, clicking “Edit” (where you write the alt text) shows a preview with a small focal circle. You can click or drag that circle onto the key subject to set the exact visual anchor.
Mastodon stores those coordinates, allowing the interface to use CSS object-position to center the preview around that point instead of blindly chopping the middle.
If uploaders take a second to set the focal point – and client apps actually respect the metadata – extreme aspect ratios display cleanly without cutting off heads, and without needing to force uncropped, mismatched aspect ratios onto the entire timeline feed.
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The focal point selector only preserves one end of a tall photo. If there are interesting elements at the top and bottom of an image, the selector can only preserve one.
I would be happy to have my tall photo’s thumbnail displayed in a smaller size to preserve the original aspect ratio if the concern is that the image would dominate too much of the page.
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At least it would prevent to have heads cut. Which is already have half of a solution. 
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I agree there should be no cropping of the image, unless the publisher has cropped the image prior to publishing.
It would be better if we could be provided with an option of ratios to choose from, for example:
1:1 (1080 x 1080),
3:2 (1620 x 1080),
4:3 (1440 x 1080),
16:9 (1920 x 1080)
With the option to publish vertically or horizontally.
The resolution for each ratio may be an issue as some of the higher resolutions which can struggle or be slow to load on some devices. However, a range of resolutions for each ratio could be offered, or a happy medium be set as the standard resolution.
This would reduce any denial of service risk by publishing oversized images.
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This tool is not communicated when you prepare a post.
People do even not know that images will be cropped at all. No preview, no alert, nothing. The button ist related to alt text.
Focus pointer: People who do not use alt text do not know that it does exists. The circle also is not eplained, it causes quastionmarks.
A squared frame that shows how the image will look like lateron would be much clearer to understand. Users would be able to adjust their focus intuitively and pecise.
Nevertheless: For me, cropping images breakes the whole flow while reading a feed. It takes too much clicks and efford to stop and expand every image.
I am very sorry, but from usability-side I consider the decision to crop all images as a failure.
edit: I am wondering what the reason or the supposed advantage of limiting images handling that existed before?
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Here’s an actual example from this morning’s timeline.
Why should I have to click on this image to get the point or joke or whatever?
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