Despite achieving an A grade in pure maths A level, I am amazed how much I am struggling with this concept. The penny has dropped on the golden rectangle, and I understand how it relates to frame dimensions, but application to the composition within the frame, and the link with fibonacci sequence has me baffled.
However the templates included with the notes (and also in "The Photographers Eye") formed the basis of my attempt to compose some photos according to the Golden Section. I also found an online helper for testing photos at http://www.photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/photo-adjuster.htm.
All the images are straight out of camera with no cropping or editing, as I wanted to do the project with my naked eye through the viewfinder and see how close I came.
I included the yellow gerbera as approximating to the fibonacci golden spiral. When tested, the initial curve of the spiral went exactly round the flower centre, although the tail of the spiral couldn't be matched in the composition.
The Christmas Bauble approximated more to the rule of thirds than the golden section, as the golden section divisions were slightly off the centre of the bauble. A crop could probably bring this spot on to the golden section divisions.
The Moon, a simple composition, is probably the closest out the set, although it could be moved so that the frame subdivision axis fell exactle in the middle of the mean. In reality it was slightly to the left.
The bridges were taken from a ledge on a bridge at night. I included it because the low swing bridge and the illuminated pillar on the left of the Tyne Bridge divide the frame. In fact the swing bridge was too low and the pillar to far to the left to conform to the ratio.
For the portrait of our dog Ruby, my initial thoughts were for the eyes to divide the frame according to the ratio. When tested, the her left eye ran along the horizontal and the bridge of her nose along the vertical divisions, dividing the frame in accordance with the golden section. This one was pretty close.
Although the frame divisions are a lot clearer now (still to try out the golden triangle), it feels more intuitive to go with the rule of thirds. I was pleased to get at least 2 (Ruby & Moon) pretty spot on, and the others weren't a million miles away. When I first learned the rule of thirds, that felt quite baffling to me at the time, so I hope that these dimensions will become like second nature over time. I was particularly pleased with the Ruby picture, this is a very pleasing composition I think. This ratio is also very suited to positioning of the Moon, and I will use crops to try and achieve this going forward.
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