Project 13; The Golden Section.

Having been initially puzzled by the difference between the golden section and the rule of thirds I am at least in my own head a little clearer. Both are theories on how to subdivide the frame of a photo or a painting.

It seems to me from the little research I have done on the internet that the rule of thirds is derived from the golden section. So far it seems to me that it is an approximation or quick and handy ready reckoner for the golden section.

The golden section is a theory or rule originally used in painting. It has been variously called the golden section, the golden mean and my personal favorite the divine proportion.

This idea has been written about and used by such artists as Leornado Da Vinci, Salvadore Dalí and Mondrain.

In the notes on the AOP course Michael Freeman states that "the ratio inside the frame, from the small part to the large part is the same as the large part and the whole". I can see that it is possible to get more and more engrossed in this. Basically in composing a picture there are ways to subdivide the frame that give a harmonious composition, I suppose its possible to call this balance? So in order to achieve an aesthetically pleasing composition one would use the golden mean. On the other hand perhaps to achieve a picture with tension or disharmony would one deliberately ignore or break the golden mean?

One of the interesting things that I have realised about this is that it happens unconsciously.

Here is a picture that I took several months ago, its of the old harbour in Biarritz. The subject of the picture is the light house. I have drawn a grid on top of the picture using the principles of the golden section and the light house is sitting pretty right in the centre of the golden section.

Scan of the photo on ordinary paper and the original.

Here are some shots that I have deliberately composed on the golden section.

Having been busy composing using the golden section I began thinking about this rule and the possibilities offered by deliberately breaking it. I came across the work of Paul Reas in Langford's Basic Photography. Here is a link to some of his work;

http://amd.newport.ac.uk/displayPage.aspx?object_id=4834&parent_id=4642&type=PAG

The photo on this page reminds me very much of the work of Mondrian. Here is a link to some information on his work. http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/mondrian_piet.html

Paul Reas's website can be found here;

http://www.paulreas.co.uk/

There are some good example here on how to create tension, chaos almost by changing the camera angle.