The Golden Ratio in photography.

Mathematics has played a very important role in our lives. As a kid it was my nemesis and I am sure a lot of you still get the jitters when it comes to crunching numbers. But one sequence has  played a pivotal role in my life – The Fibonacci series. 

In simple terms it is a series where a number is the sum of the two preceding numbers, so the simplest of the series would be:

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 and so on.

This sequence is translated to a ratio called the Golden ratio, the bigger the numbers in the series closer it is to the ratio. And surprisingly the number is similar every time – 1.618 and that is what everyone in the art world is going crazy about including the photographers. Do not believe me that the numbers are close? Try it out yourself. Here’s a sequence which started from 2,3

233,377,610,987,1597 so 377/233=610/377=987/610=1597/987 =1.618.

Now how many of you whipped out the calculators to check if I was quoting the truth.

For the sake of understanding consider a photograph it is usually a rectangle. How do we find the golden ratio there? It is found by dividing the horizontal line into two parts in such a way that the longer part divided by the smaller part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part. Confused? Let me show it with an illustration.

This golden ratio or the golden mean exists everywhere in nature, as a matter of fact, even in the human body.

Here are a few examples – Seeds, especially sunflower seeds, Flower petals, Galaxies, nautilus shells, a human face, hurricanes and even the DNA molecule. Hard to believe it right? But it is a fact.

There we go, now we know the principle behind it. How do we apply this in photography?

Fibonacci Spiral

A simple technique is to overlap the spiral in your mind over the frame you have composed. The Aim is to get the inner end of the spiral over your focus point or subject of interest.One can place other elements within the photograph over the spiral to lead the viewer’s eye to where you intend.

This technique can be applied to almost any subject you plan to photograph. May it be portraits, stills, landscapes or even Macros. One thing to remember though is that rules are not set in stone, these are just guiding principles . If you feel breaking the rule can make a photograph look better go ahead and break it by all means

There are variations of it applied in photography in different scenarios..

Rule of thirds

I am sure almost all of you are aware of the rule of thirds or the golden grid. Nowadays most of the DSLR cameras are advanced enough to have a visual grid which can be overlapped in the viewfinder itself. This is the basic grid Which divides the frame into 9 equal halves using two vertical and two horizontal lines. Somewhat like this –

The points of  intersection of these lines play an important role in adding dynamism and are associated with a few other rules of composition. One should try to place their subject of interest at the intersection of one of the points.

Fibonacci rule of thirds.

A different school of thought visualizes the rule of thirds slightly differently and in place of the grid being divided as 1+1+1 it is broken down using the Fibonacci ratio – 1+0.618 +1

One can see that intersection points have moved inwards as a result of the lines moving inwards. I would leave it to the readers discretion to see which one suits their style better.

When it comes to landscapes the points act as a point of placing a subject in the frame but more importantly the horizontal lines play a further important role. One can place the horizon along those lines depending on which area of the frame carries more weightage/importance.

Ex- If the sky is vivid and there is a lot of drama in the sky one can shift the horizon to the lower horizontal line giving the sky 3/4th space within the photograph. On the other hand, If the foreground has a lot to offer, the horizon can move to the top horizontal line giving the foreground three fourths of the space within the frame.

Fibonacci triangles

Now I find this to be a really interesting take when it comes to composing your frame. The intersection point on the diagonal can be used to place the key focus area of the frame and the diagonal to lead the eye or to balance things off within the frame. Do not forget to read about the different Elements of composition which will help your photographs tell a story.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line through the contact us page. 🙂