Wednesday 19 January 2011

The Golden Spiral.

The Golden Spiral was in fact something that was first discovered by Pythagoras. In geometry, the golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor b is related to φ (the golden spiral ratio). The Golden Spiral was firstly derived from the 'golden rectangle'; a unique rectangle with a golden ratio. When you connect a curve through the corners of these rectangles, that is when the golden spiral is created.  To be specific the golden spiral gets wider by a factor of φ for every quarter turn that it is making.

Therefore, this means that the spiral shows us where the eyes are drawn first and the place that people automatically find most pleasing. If the theory was to be put in relation to photography it would seem that the centre of the spiral is where the main focus of the image is. As the spiral moves away from the centre, this is moving away from the point of focus to smaller details that people do not notice as much. I will have to test this out on several of my tests shot to ensure that the golden spiral theory works with my photographs and consequently make them more aesthetically pleasing.

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