How I Use the Golden Spiral

For years I was unsure what to do in practical terms with the little nautilus shell laid over somebody’s photograph. The golden spiral is always cited in composition and art books as a tool for creating a balanced scene.

I’d look at it and go, “okay, so that works in this photo, but how do I actually apply that when I’m building a scene?”

I have a degree in art history and a decade plus experience as a professional photographer and, true confession, I don’t use the golden spiral.

I can recognize it, but I don’t use it to engineer a composition.

That said, I also don’t throw it out.

Let me explain.

Here is the quiche from last week’s post with the spiral laid over it four different ways.

In each image the spiral on something I could write a little caption about. From the placement of the knife to the position of the slice in the pie plate. All great in retrospect, but it’s much harder to use in the moment when you’re standing in front of a scene trying to put your finger on what would make it feel more exciting.

Instead of trying to line things up like it’s a formula, use the golden spiral as a guiding force.

The thing about a spiral is that it’s dynamic. If your eye follows a spiral, it’s moving in and out along a line.

There’s action.

And because it is curved rather than angular, that movement reads as soft and fluid instead of sharp and abrupt. It’s inviting.

Now compare that to what’s on most of our tables.

If you go scroll through your own work right now, you’re probably looking at a lot of round shapes like plates, bowls, cups, skillets, etc... Round is the default shape of nearly everything we photograph in food.

But a circle is not a spiral. A circle is closed. Your eye runs around the rim and arrives back where it started and does it again. There’s motion, but it’s contained and thus, less dynamic.

A spiral is the same curved softness, but with somewhere to go.

So how do we take all these closed circles and give them the dynamic personality of a spiral?

Interrupt it!

#1 Cross it. Lay a line over the rim so the circle cannot complete. A spoon, a straw, a knife, a fork handle. In the granola bowl the spoon runs across the rim and straight out of the bowl, so instead of looping the edge, your eye picks up the handle and has somewhere to go. The circle stopped being a container and became a route.

Even the food itself can intersect a circle to break the edge and create a way for the eye to move outside the circle and meander the rest of the frame.

#2 Open it up. If you’ve ever noticed a whole uncut pie is kinda boring, you might understand why now. The cranberry pie below has a slice removed, and the remaining slices are shuffled over, helping to define the individual slices. Those slices become arrows, pointing to areas of interest outside the pie plate. The whole pie was a static circle, the cut pie is giving dynamic directions and helping connect the other dots in the scene.

#3 Crop It. Let the edge of the frame interrupt the circle. Like this pizza shot. Every plate is cut by the frame. Even the main plate which is the hero, it pushes just past the right side. There is one full circle in this scene, the little bowl of pepper flakes. But given its size, it doesn’t hold the weight of the other circles and is something for the eyes to bounce off of, versus get stuck inside.

But now, let’s look at one more photo. What do you see?

Three bowls. The two that sit completely inside the frame have silverware interrupting their edges. And the third bowl, without silverware, is cut by the frame. You’re not limited to using just one technique per photo. Each circle is an opportunity to impart a dynamic line.

Has this given you some ideas? Next time you’re faced with a scene and things feel boring, assess the circles. Are you keeping the viewer’s eye looping in a static circle? Or is there a path for the eye to exit and experience something more like a dynamic spiral?