DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

Search

Submit A Story

golden ratio

What is the golden ratio, and how to use it in photography?

by 2 Comments

The Golden Ratio is a compositional tool. Composition is the process of arranging your frame to make an image that draws in the viewer and keeps them interested in your photo. Along with exposure and lighting, composition is key to good photography. So, in this article, we’re going to look at the Golden Ratio, learn what it is, how to spot it, and how to use it when composting photos.

There are lots of different tools and rules that you can use to produce strong compositions, and all of them have the time and place when to use them. Triangles, Leading lines, and Symmetry are some of those compositional rules. One more compositional technique that you can add to your toolbox is the golden ratio. It’s similar to the rule of thirds, but not quite. Let’s dive in.

Mastering composition with a little help from Will Smith (sort of)

by 3 Comments

Perhaps “with help from a little Will Smith” would’ve been a little more accurate, but still. The “rules” of composition are widely known and hotly debated. On the one side, you’ve got those who swear by them, live by them, and can’t break free from them. On the other side you’ve got those who claim they “don’t live by rules” and ignore them, while suggesting others do the same.

The simple fact of the matter, though, is that a lot of the time, the “rules” work. Sure, there’s times when you want to break free. But, if you don’t understand how and why they work, how can you know when to effectively break them? In this video, filmmaker Darious Britt talks us through some of the rules of composition. He also explains exactly why they often work so well. Basically, it all boils down to familiarity and comfort.

Why The Golden Ratio Is Better Than The Rule Of Thirds

by 24 Comments

A long time ago I was a young art student, being told about the “Rule Of Thirds”. I was told it’s one of the most important fundamentals of art and photography, as it helps you get the right composure in your images. Overlay a tic-tac-toe/noughts and crosses grid over your image and crop or move your picture around so that the “points of interest” lie on the lines or line intersections. Sounds simple, it has been the basis of countless millions of images throughout the centuries. But is it perfect? No! Is there a better, more badass brother to the grid? Yes! Enter the Golden Ratio.

Just to slow things down a bit, here’s what the Rule Of Thirds (I’ll call it the ROT grid from now on) looks like on a plain black background. Chances are you’re familiar with it, you’ve seen it pop up on your cameras viewfinder or as an overlay in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Why does bad framing work? Looking beyond the rules of composition

by 13 Comments

The only thing over which we always have control in photography or video, no matter what your camera, is composition. We’re taught these “rules” and theories to help improve how we frame our work. But how much do these rules really need to be followed? And how does our viewer perceive the work when they aren’t? And is it still really bad framing when the work doesn’t follow the rules but we can’t look away?

In this video from YouTuber Brain Flick, we take a look at the psychology of pleasing compositions. The rules we’re taught as photographers, and the effects that breaking them can have on the work and how it is perceived.

20 tips and rules to make you a composition ninja

by 7 Comments

There are no unbreakable rules when it comes to how you should compose your photographs After all, who likes rules except for your old school principal or heads of H.R. departments? There are however, several guidelines you can use to help improve the composition of your photos. In this tutorial, I’ve listed 20 of these guidelines along with examples of each. I’ve started with the most basic ones and finished with some of the more advanced composition techniques.

First of all we have to define what is meant by ‘composition’. Composition refers to the way the various elements in a scene are arranged within the frame. As I’ve already mentioned, these are not hard and fast rules but guidelines. That said, many of them have been used in art for thousands of years and they really do help achieve more attractive compositions. I find that I usually have one or more of these guidelines in the back of my mind as I’m setting up a shot.

We’ll start with probably the most well known composition technique: The Rule of Thirds.

What is the golden ratio and why is it meant to be beautiful?

by 7 Comments

Photography is awash with rules, from the inverse square rule to the Sunny 16 rule; and nestling among the composition rules in the golden ratio. But what exactly is it? And what makes it compositionally valuable?

The golden ratio is a mathematical principle that you might also hear referred to as the golden mean, the golden section, the golden spiral, divine proportion, or Phi. Phi, a bit like Pi, is an irrational number. It is valued at approximately 1.618. As a ratio, it would be expressed as 1:1.618. A rectangle that conforms to the golden ratio would have shorter sides equivalent to 1 and longer sides equivalent to 1.618.

You get there by dividing a line (c) into parts (a) and (b) where (a) divided by (b) is equal to (c) divided by (a). Does a diagram help?

Everything You Need To Know To Master Composition In One 30 Minute Lesson

This is probably one of the most comprehensive videos we’ve seen on the topic of composition. Though it was made with the intent to help out CGI artists, the advice educator Andrew Price dishes out to us in the 30-minute tutorial can be applied to just about any creative work, especially including photography and cinematography. Price is able to teach visual artists the foundations of composition as well as some more advanced techniques, making this video a useful tool for all skill levels of photographers.

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts