Improving your photographic composition skills can be a long and arduous task, yet there is one technique, developed thousands of years ago that can be put into effect in a matter of minutes, that can give you a dramatic improvement in the artistic value of your work almost instantly.
What is the Golden Ratio?
The ancient Greeks were clever people who were extremely adept at seeing the relationships between different things. For instance, they are the ones who discovered the relationship between different sides of a triangle and thus developed the Pythagorean Theorem. They also found the relationship between a circle's radius and its circumference pi: π. In the arts they noticed a similar relationship between great works of art and a particular mathematical formula (the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal to the whole length divided by the larger part) This formula actually derives at number, or more accurately, an approximation: 1.61803... the mathematical constant phi:φ. It is interesting to note that this constant is seen all through the world of science and mathematics as well as in the art world.
Over the thousands of years since the Greeks developed this theory, there has been a great deal of evidence to support it. What does this mean to you as a photographer? It means that there are certain areas within the frame where your subject is likely to draw the most attention. Photographers commonly call this the "Rule of Thirds" but it has its roots in ancient Greek mathematics.
What is the Golden Ratio?
The ancient Greeks were clever people who were extremely adept at seeing the relationships between different things. For instance, they are the ones who discovered the relationship between different sides of a triangle and thus developed the Pythagorean Theorem. They also found the relationship between a circle's radius and its circumference pi: π. In the arts they noticed a similar relationship between great works of art and a particular mathematical formula (the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal to the whole length divided by the larger part) This formula actually derives at number, or more accurately, an approximation: 1.61803... the mathematical constant phi:φ. It is interesting to note that this constant is seen all through the world of science and mathematics as well as in the art world.
Over the thousands of years since the Greeks developed this theory, there has been a great deal of evidence to support it. What does this mean to you as a photographer? It means that there are certain areas within the frame where your subject is likely to draw the most attention. Photographers commonly call this the "Rule of Thirds" but it has its roots in ancient Greek mathematics.