Use the Golden Ratio To Improve Your Photography

Use the Golden Ratio To Improve Your Photography

Learn what the Golden Ratio in photography is, how it compares to the Rule of Thirds and how to use it for photography composition. The Golden Ratio has been used as a powerful composition tool for centuries. It is a design principle based on the ratio of 1 to 1.618. Hailed as ‘the perfect number’, the Golden Ratio can assist in creating images that have a strong composition, which will attract viewers to your photograph.

The reason for this is simple, the Golden Ratio allows for a composition that is perfectly balanced from a viewer’s perspective, creating a photograph that is most pleasing to the human eye. We naturally prefer to look at an image that is balanced and harmonized, and the Golden Ratio provides this. Famous works of art such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and The Birth of Venus, among others, are all rumoured to have been composed based on the Golden Ratio. In fact, the Golden Ratio has also been called ‘natures number’ because it is said to appear everywhere throughout nature, from the nautilus shell to the sunflower. Using the Golden Ratio in photography as an element of design is a great way to achieve a strong composition in an organic way. This will draw viewers to your photograph and ensure viewer-interest from the beginning. The Golden Ratio will also allow your viewer be circuitously guided around your photograph. This is what we as photographers should strive for. Your viewers do not want to work to see a beautiful photograph, they just want to see it. Photography is about creating something that is visually appealing, and using the Golden Ratio as a design principle is just one way we can achieve this.

The Golden Ratio in Photography And The Fibonacci Spiral