Have you ever heard of Phi?  No, I'm not talking about the Fee-fi-fo-fum from Jack and the Beanstalk.  The Phi I'm talking about (which is pronounced by most just like the Fi in Fee-fi-fo-fum) is a name for what is sometimes referred to as the Golden Section, Golden Ratio, Golden Mean. Technically it is an abstract number similar to Pi, but to me the most appropriate description is probably Golden Ratio, because of how the number is arrived at mathematically. 

Before going on, you may be interested in taking the Phi test!  I encourage you to get out of your “photographer” mode, and just let your own instincts determine your answer.

Test one.  From the lines below, select the line that you feel is divided in the most “pleasing” ratio ...

Test two ... which box below has the most pleasing proportion to your eye?

When preparing a presentation about composition and phi to my companies photographers at a national meeting a few years ago, I was aware the subject was a little contrary to what is commonly taught in photographic composition.  As I did research for the presentation I stumbled across tests like this on the internet.  I’ve given the test to a few groups of people as well as random people.  Similar to the results of those internet articles, I’ve found non-photographers and new photographers pick either C or E in the line test about 75 to 80% of the time, with the rest picking primarily A or D.  (OK, I cheated a little.  C and E are divided in the same ratio). With the box test, similar results, about 75% or so tend to pick box C, the rest divided between A and B.  Photographers tend to vary a little bit, especially with the line test, as their “rule of thirds” training kicks in, so choice D tends to get more responses.  However, it still doesn’t beat C and E.

So what does that have to do with photography?

Quite a bit actually. I first heard about Phi while taking a graphic design class at BYU over 30 years ago ( in the art department, not the photography department).  This class had a significant impact on me and changed the way I look at composition in my images. Like most photographers, until that class I was a "rule of thirds" guy.  This "rule" has been a mainstay in photography for a long time, and if you do a google search for rule of thirds, about the only hits you will get are photography sites.  Interestingly enough even though painters are very mindful of composition, I didn’t find any hits using rule of thirds in art, at least in the first few google pages, only about photography. (of course, that’s probably due to the fact that there are probably 1,000 photography sites to every art site on the net).

To quote Wikipedia, "two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is approximately 1.6180339887."  (Funny, approximate to me isn’t a number to the 10th decimal place!)  A pretty good visual representation of that definition can be found here.   While the description is confusing and sounds like double talk to most,  the number is the key point. Going back to our tests, lines C and E are divided using Phi or the golden ratio ... a 300 pixel line, divided at 114/186 pixels.  Box C is a box whose width is 100 pixels and height is 161 pixels, again the golden ratio.  (Line D and Box B are based on the rule of thirds.)

On one site discussing the rule of thirds was an article about “breaking” it - not really for any other reason than to be different.  In reality, I think the rule of thirds is somewhat broken anyway, and many skilled photographers using it may find that they aren’t really using it!  Of course, if you go to the trouble of putting a grid on your image to make sure you are “following the rule” you won’t break it, but if instead you are using your creative eye, and positioning the subject with what looks like the rule of thirds, you might be surprised ... you might find you are more often positioning it using the golden ratio, or Phi. The difference is very subtle, and images that look like they use the rule of thirds may very well be using the Golden Ratio instead.  I even found examples of the rule of thirds that really used the Golden Ratio.  Mind you I’m not saying the rule of thirds is invalid and you should never use it.  It is a perfectly valid ratio as are many other ratios,  and visually can be quite pleasing. What I am saying is most of the time I believe the Golden Ratio results in a more pleasing composition.

PHI IS IN LIGHTROOM...

What prompted me to write this article was discovering that some creative and insightful person at Adobe has included this, as well as a few other alternatives, to the grid layout when cropping with Lightroom.  Since the idea has been something I’ve been using for over 30 years, and even given a presentation about to the photographers in my company, this inclusion in Lightroom seemed like a perfect opportunity to write an article and encourage photographers to try using the golden ratio and not the rule of thirds as a compositional guideline.

We all know composition is far more than a simple rule, be it rule of thirds or Golden Ratio.  It has to do with objects, space, ratios, proportions,  implied space.  It involves color ( or lack of color), luminance , contrast ... if you break it down it’s pretty complicated.  Much of what we as photographers can control when creating composition is done by what we decide to include or exclude in an image (space), the overall shape of the space we create with the image, sometimes the implication of what extends outside that space, and the placement of the objects in relation to each other as well as the edge of that space.  Where we position focal points is an important part of composition.

The basis of this number is not new ... it’s influence (whether planned or just naturally pleasing) dates as far back as Greek and Egyptian architecture.  The Fibonacci series dates to about 1200 AD, and while Fibonacci may not have actually associated the series with Phi, the relationship is very clear.  Most renaissance painters used the Divine Proportion, including Leonardo da Vinci who   even wrote up the concept in a thesis.  These artists often divided their canvas into eighths and used the ratio of 5 to 3 as a compositional grid, a ratio extremely close the golden ratio.  This in fact is definitely the easiest way to create a grid which approximates the Golden Ratio.

If this intrigues you, I would encourage you to browse around at goldennumber.net for a wealth of interesting information.  Even though it is an abstract mathematical number, we find it common place in the natural world we live in - it is remarkable how often this number seems to appear in nature.

What intrigues me more about phi is evidence that it seems to be built into our our visual balance, thus the reason so many people agree on the line or box test above.  When presenting the concept to my photographers at that meeting, a nationally prominent portrait photographer and friend of mine who was also presenting to our group was sitting in.  After I was finished he mentioned to me when cropping his images after positioning using the “rule of thirds” he always finds himself “tweaking” the subject in just a little ... he said it just looks a little better to his eye.  I believe most photographers when composing their image using the “rule of thirds” may be surprised to find more often than not they may be closer to the golden ratio than the rule of thirds.

If you use Lightroom, try the Golden Ratio choice for the cropping guide. While in the Develope module, from the menu bar select View>Cropping Guide Overlay>Golden Ratio. I stumbled across it just trying to turn the default “thirds” option off.  

If you don’t have Lightrroom and would like to try this out in Photoshop, you can download a Phi Guide I’ve created (if the image opens directly in your browser window, just save it to your hard drive). To use it, resize the guide to the same size as your image, do a select all, copy and then paste it into your image.  This will put the guide in as a layer on your document, with 4 lines each at the Golden Ratio similar to Lightroom.  The default opacity for this layer is 50%, you can tweak it up or down to make it easier to see.

You may want to try this after you have composed your image ... you may your own natural tendencies are using it anyway.  Personally I don’t use the grid, but most of my work if checked using a grid will fall pretty close to the golden ratio.  As I said, there is something naturally pleasing about the Golden Ratio, so many that do things because they “look right” may often end up using this ratio.