Golden Ratio
The subject sits on a spiral proportion rather than on a simple grid.
Opens a video model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
The subject sits on a curve instead of a grid, at the point where the spiral winds tightest. The rest of the frame unwinds away from it, so the eye starts on the subject and travels outward.
The result sits close to a third and reads a little less mechanical. A frame built on thirds can look as though it was laid out with a ruler, and the spiral hides its own construction.
How it works
The spiral is built from squares in the proportion 1 to 1.618, each one smaller than the last, laid inside the frame. The subject goes at the tight end of the curve, usually about two fifths of the way in rather than one third.
The supporting elements follow the curve outward: a shoulder, a table edge, a road, a line of trees. The shape only reads when something in the scene traces it, so the background has to cooperate.
Wider aspect ratios suit it better. At 16:9 or wider the spiral has room to unwind, and in a square frame it collapses into a centred subject with a slight offset.
When to use it
Use it on a frame with one subject and a scene that already curves: a shoreline, a staircase, a bend in a road, a body turned away from the lens.
Skip it when the scene is all straight lines. A spiral laid over a corridor has nothing to follow, and the result is an off centre subject with no reason for being there.
Told apart from its neighbours
The rule of thirds is a grid of straight lines and the golden ratio is a curve. The practical difference is where the subject lands: a third sits at 33 percent across the frame and the spiral sits nearer 38 percent.
Both are off centre placements, so a model will treat them as the same request unless you say spiral. If nothing in the frame curves, thirds is the honest name for what you are asking for.
The prompt
Replace the blanks, keep the rest. Then run it on a video model.
<subject> placed on a golden spiral composition, main element at the tightest point of the curve, supporting elements along it
What goes wrong
Asking for the golden ratio by name usually returns an ordinary rule of thirds frame, because the two sit so close together. Say golden spiral and name what traces the curve.
The second failure is a frame with the subject at the wrong end of the spiral. The subject belongs at the tightest point, so state that rather than leaving the placement open.
Leave out
centered, rule of thirds
Watch for
It is close to thirds but not the same. Say spiral, not grid.
Questions
Shoot it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
Next to it in where the subject sits
