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Golden Crop
Tagged: cropping
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AuthorTopic: Golden Crop Read 539 Times
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Styles & Lookson: July 31, 2021 at 3:32 pm
This is a math geeky post – if you’re not into that kind of thing, stop reading.
An hxw rectangle, where h < w, is called a golden rectangle if h is to w as w is to w+h, that is, h/w = w/(h+w). The ratio phi = h/w = 1.618… is called the golden ratio. It has several interesting mathematical properties. For example, it is the ratio of the diagonal to side length of a regular pentagon, and it is the asymptotic ratio of successive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. You can read more in the Wikipedia article.
The golden ratio, also called the “divine proportion,” has also been known to have certain artistic properties. You may have seen the golden spiral as an alternative to rule-of-thirds composition. It has been claimed that the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon, and the Mona Lisa were designed using golden ratio – although some of those claims are not well substantiated. Nonetheless, the 19th century psychologist G. T. Fechner presented subjects with piles of rectangles and asked them to select the most pleasing. They selected the golden rectangles! So there is something to this.
Yet none of the standard crops are golden. 2 x 3 is the closest (ratio = 1.5), then 9 x 16 (ratio = 1.77…). It happens (and there is a mathematical theorem about this) that 610 x 987 is extremely close to a golden rectangle. So I entered 610 x 987 into Capture One as a custom crop and started comparing it to some 2 x 3 crops. I found the golden crop to be more pleasing. That’s not scientific result (like Fechner’s experiment) since I knew which crop was golden. But it’s fun, and I’m going to start using it.
JSS
Re: Golden CropReply #1 on: August 7, 2021 at 7:14 pmShow us some examples, both 2×3 and golden of the same image, and let us vote on which is more pleasing.
Re: Golden CropReply #2 on: December 13, 2021 at 4:23 pmIts doubtless kept you rather busy
It sounds likes its been very intruiging
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
Michael West.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
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