Reflections

In the article "20 photography composition tips that will get you beautiful photos", Helen Hooker points out that the golden ratio or spiral - defined by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century as a proportion to which many beautiful things in the world, natural and man-made, adhere - can oftentimes be found in photographic works.

From a compositional perspective, and the tips found in Helen's article, the photograph below uses the following:

Tip #2: Shoot from a different point of view - namely from the use of a 'reflection'

Tip #3: Contrast as a compositional tool - capturing the photo in black and white

Tip #9: Does your photo have a Focal Point? - the focal point is the surface of the glass which provides the reflection, and is enhanced by the shallow Depth of Field, creating a nice 'bokeh' effect in the background, and

Tip #19: The Golden Spiral - which follows the model's hairline in the left of the frame, flows across and through the frame, spirals outward towards the viewer, and ends at center of the left eye of the model in the right of the frame.

The photograph was captured with a Nikon D810 Full Frame camera and a AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F/2.8 GII ED lens (both are my favorites for so many reasons). The photograph was captured in black and white by using a custom profile uploaded and saved as a picture control, and selected using the 'Manage Picture Control' under the 'Shooting Menu" of the Nikon D810. The photograph was captured in both RAW and JPG formats, at a focal length of 85mm, iso-200, f/5, at 1/15 sec with no flash.

Reflection - Models: Maeve B. and Clare K.

The RAW photograph was then post-processed in Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 to 'crop' the photograph and create a 3:2 format picture and the Golden Spiral, as shown:

Golden Spiral Example in Adobe Photoshop CC 2015

The photograph was watermarked, and exported from Photoshop as a JPG.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, find Helen's tips useful, are able to try them in your future compositions, and that you can use the steps outlined above to create your own "Golden Spiral" photographs.