The Fibonacci Spiral
Video: Fibonacci Spiral
Challenge level
DIFFICULT
MODERATE
EASY
Main subject and supporting elements you might need
Good for scenes such as nature like flowers, trees, and animals. Landscape with paths, portraits photography, sculptures, and landscapes.
The Fibonacci Spiral
It’s strange but true. To get a great digital image, professional photographers often look at paintings and drawings created centuries ago. They do this because those wise old masters knew how to use composition techniques to create timeless masterpieces. Even if you are just a beginner photographer, you probably want your photos to stand out from the crowd, so start using clever composition to give your images impact. One of the common artistic composition rules used by painters throughout history is the Fibonacci Spiral. It’s so powerful that architects, sculptors, and artists still use it today. And most professional photographers include this technique to make their images more appealing. With the Wise Camera app on your iPhone, you can easily use the Fibonacci Spiral to create your own masterpiece.
What is the Fibonacci Spiral?
Photographing nature is a joyful experience, and it’s often the unexpected discoveries that really make the day sparkle. The next time you are shooting landscapes or seascapes, look down at wildflowers, plants, and snail shells as well. You’ll see that nature loves curves! Point the lens of your iPhone’s camera to the middle of a flower, and you’ll become aware of petals gently radiating from the center. Put it close to pine cones and sunflowers to see overlapping spirals of seeds. When you photograph seashells at the beach, you’ll be enchanted by the swirling lines widening around a central point. Then look at the waves curling as they approach the shore and marvel at their perfect curve. If you venture into rainforests, you will soon find more examples of spirals in the form of unfolding fern leaves. At the river, you’ll spot whirlpools as the water twists and turns around smooth boulders. And looking up at the sky on a cloudless night will also give you a feeling of déjà vu when you realize the Milky Way is a spiraling galaxy. Everything in nature is connected, and from the DNA within you to the stars above; the common link is a spiral.
The curve of a spiral was appreciated by civilizations throughout history. Because of the way you can start with a dot and draw around it in expanding lines forever, it was seen as a symbol of growth, evolution, and eternity. It also holds a mathematical principle that is still used in architecture, computer science, and photography today. The Fibonacci spiral is based on a mathematical sequence of numbers where the next number is found by adding up the two numbers before it. It goes like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc. Why is this good for photographers? It’s all about the way that a diagram of the Fibonacci numbers creates a spiral, and most people think this shape represents perfect proportions. In the Wise Camera app, you can place the outline of the Fibonacci spiral over your own photos to see if you already use this principle without realizing it. Or try the Wise Photos app and do some new cropping on existing images to see if they are improved through the Fibonacci spiral.
Who Was Fibonacci?
Fibonacci was the son of a merchant who lived in Pisa, Italy. While in North Africa with his father for a trading mission, he was sent to study calculation with an Arab mathematician. In later years he traveled to Egypt, Greece, Provence, Sicily, and Syria to study different numerical systems. In 1202 he wrote a book detailing what he learned about mathematical methods in commerce. This book also showed the chain of numbers that was eventually called the Fibonacci sequence. Centuries later, this formula was understood to relate to the Golden Ratio, and of course, the spiral.
Who Uses the Fibonacci Spiral?
The art world often refers to the Fibonacci spiral as the Golden Ratio. Famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo seem to have employed this artistic composition rule in their paintings and sculptures. The Golden Ratio is still used in art because the concept of beauty and harmony is believed to be based on the purity of mathematics and geometry. Look around the town or city you live in to discover examples of how marketing teams use the Golden Ratio in company logos.
There’s a link between Fibonacci spirals and fractals (a complex pattern that repeats forever), and this is used in deeper aspects of scientific disciplines such as engineering, biomechanics, geophysics, and meteorology. Of most relevance to you, however, is the fact that photographers improve their shots by basing the layout of their intended image on the Fibonacci spiral.
In the Wise Camera app on your iPhone, you can overlay the image of this spiral on a scene that you are going to photograph. Choose this form of composition when there are natural curves in the image before you. Position your main subject at the smallest part of the spiral and line up the supporting elements along the lines of the spiral. This shows how to compose the photo in the most artistic way possible, leading your eyes around the picture in a gentle flow. But if the view before you has lots of straight lines, try another style from the composition app instead.
A photo is a visual story. You want to make an impact at first glance by having the main subject settled in a position that will easily catch the eye. Your photo should make the viewer ask themselves a question such as, what is that person (or object) doing there? From that point, the eyes will work their way around the image from one step to the next, following the story to a conclusion. If the Fibonacci spiral is used, the viewer will look around the image and end up at the tail of the spiral with an emotional understanding of what the photographer is telling them through the image. Photos often tell a simple story, such as here is a polar bear floating on a small piece of ice. When you look around the rest of the image, you notice there is no land in sight. The realization suddenly becomes clear that the story is about global warming.
How Does it Improve Your Photos?
The core of the spiral is the main focal point of this symbol. Place your main subject there to catch the viewer’s eyes. If you are photographing a person, place their head or eyes in this position. For an extra compositional boost, place other elements of your subject along intersecting points of the spiral and boxes on the screen of the Wise Camera app. Use the swirl of the spiral’s tail as a guide for the person’s hair, a flowing scarf, or their extended hand. Supporting elements to the main subject, with natural curves such as clouds, shadows, or background shapes, often fit this tail area to great effect. Having blocks of color, or textured areas filling the largest block on the screen will also work well to support the main subject. This spiral is not just for portraits though; you can use it in many situations. It is very effective in landscapes, especially when you have a solitary point of interest in a wide-angle shot.
One of the least understood aspects of the Fibonacci spiral is its adaptability to a variety of angles. You don’t have to keep it in the traditional format. With the Wise Camera app on an iPhone, you can tap the screen to flip it or tip it! Then use the slider to zoom the image to fit the contours of the spiral.
If you are excited about the concept of this form of composition, don’t wait for an opportunity to try it on location—dig into your phone’s photo album now and find some favorite images to play with. Use the Wise Photos app to place the Fibonacci spiral over your existing images and crop them to this format. By following this compositional guideline, your photos will be taken to a new level of style and elegance.
Try It!
When using the Fibonacci Spiral tool, you are given the power to change a mundane image into something special. How often should you consider using an artistic composition rule such as the Fibonacci Spiral? Most styles of photography will benefit from it. Whenever you see a beautiful natural curve, and you wonder how to capture its essence in a photograph, try the Fibonacci spiral first.