The Golden Rectangle
The Golden Rectangle (See pictures at: https://www.hmphotographs.com/p113904293 }
The Golden Rectangle is a rectangle where the dimensions adhere to the Golden Ratio ie the ratio of the width and height is 1.618.
For example if the height is say 10” then the width will be 16.18” (10 times the Golden Ratio of 1.618)
Interestingly the Golden Rectangle can be split into a square with a vertical rectangle at the end (Picture 1). This vertical rectangle also has the dimensions of a Golden Rectangle which can be split into a square and rectangle at the top or bottom and again the new rectangle is a Golden Rectangle and so on. This is the basis of the Golden Spiral.
Back to the original rectangle (Picture 1 ) discussed and the square and vertical rectangle at the end. The vertical rectangle if rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise fits into the bottom left of the square (Picture 2). It will also fit the bottom right part of the square drawn for the right of the overall rectangle (Picture 3 ). This also applies to the mirror image of the original rectangle where the square is at the right side of the rectangle (Picture 4).
The end result is a Noughts and Crosses shape which is similar to the Rule of Thirds shape with the four focal points (Picture 4 ). Note in Picture 5 the Golden Rectangle is represented in Blue and the Rule of Thirds in Green
I have seen it said that the Rule of Thirds is based on the Golden Rectangle and that the Golden Rectangle focal points are more effective from an atheistic point of view than those in the Rule of Thirds.
The other interesting feature of the Golden Rectangle is the closeness of the shape (1.618 ratio) to the 35mm wide film ratio ( 36mm by 24mm = 1.50 ratio) and the modern full frame camera sensor ( 36mm by 24mm = 1.5 ratio)
There are many architects, artists and photographers who have made use of the Golden Rectangle in their work.