Golden Ratio

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Stan,

From this tank by Norbert, looks like the GS is a bit weak (dark) but yet the tank as a whole looks very soothing. The strongest thing to a GS for me is The group of false neon tetra. Can you explain a bit? I don't think he deliberately wait for the fish to post at the GS point, right?

It is near perfect GS as shown here. The formation of the fish helps.

The wider look is emphasized in this wide format tank. This makes the horizontal GS becomes less critical.

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CJ,
Use GS.
Use rule of thirds for general pin point. The move the line to get the GS.

Dom,

Your tank was fabulous and spot on for the vertical GS.

Here's what it looks like.

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Here's tank no 81 as GS. Hit! Phew

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If you understand the Fibonacci numbers to get a golden ratio then it is easy.

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55...

If your tank is lets say 55 inches wide, then a=34 and b=21, [a/b=1.618...] the two verticle GS is at 21 or 34 inch point from left.

so if your tank picture is 21 cm wide, a=13 and b=8! [a/b=1.618...]

Let's say your tank picture is 18 cm.

Just crop the picture to the edges. [use perspective crop to get it level]
Then resize image to 21 cm. [With the knowledge that a=13 and b=8 for a width of 21!]
Click CTRL R or Apple R to show rulers. You can now draw verticle line from either 8 or 13 as shown on the ruler. Drag a guideline for snap to guideline when you draw line so that it will be 100% verticle!

Repeat and resize image to get the perfect horizontal GS!

[dom]

Isaac,

Not itchy hand. You just saw the 'outside' of the tank. Due to the background gravel is near to 1 feet height and bacteria is dying. (Ask stan how smelly it is.)

So, I got no choice and have to rescape everything. But it is good for me. Because I can have a chance to rescape my tank and following the GS.

[isaacgoh]

Guys and Gals,

After much surfing, here's what I found to be quite effective to understand on lay man terms what is Golden Ratio/Golden Section and rules of thirds. I keep getting confused but reading this page is very good to give you a foundation to proceed towards more advance discussion. This is particularly good for newbies like me who know nuts about GS when experts started discussing.

Here's a good read even with the Bonzai Trees as example. You can really see what they meant and how it can help your scape. I hope this is useful for you as it was for me. Thanks.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATGold ... ction.html

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It helps that it's complicated so that only the few who understands seems to have 'artistic vision'

Anyway the earlier intersections from the horizontal and vertical to the corners is inaccurate. Sorry about that.

[isaacgoh]

It helps that it's complicated so that only the few who understands seems to have 'artistic vision'

Anyway the earlier intersections from the horizontal and vertical to the corners is inaccurate. Sorry about that.

Obviously, the artistic vision trait does not apply to me. I seem to have failed to understand until I read this pages. Now still apprentice.

But this recommendation from you to read up on Golden Ratio has really helped. I know how much it helps an aquascape now. This really makes a difference. But rules of thirds and GS should be not discussed together for newbies lah, makes us confused only. Stay basic with GS, along the way I think you will learn rules of thirds. You Lah!

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The bonsai article is good for explaining.
You made a good point about using a space as the section. eg valleys and paths. To me that is a reversed GS that draws the eye point into infinity.

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Dom's tank looking at it would have benefited from enhancing the GS as in the bonsai article.

Looks like not miscue at all but a teeny bit empty perhaps.

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Well this is the golden section and we can resize it to overlay on our tanks in photoshop. No need to calculate.

Don't have photoshop? Post your tank pix here.

*Credit goes to Greek Philosopher and Mathemathician Phythagoras for discovering the GS not Leonardo.

[dom]

Wah...you guys are good. Do you know I was inspired by the bonsai stuff together with Robby when i up this tank? Both of us went to lot of flower nurseries, bonsai master's house and etc to look for bonsai n learn about the bonsai.

Perhaps, what i learnt from bonsai and i used it in this tank without my notice.

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Artists do it naturally! haha. So consider yourself one. Perhaps your tank did not score high on impact. So that could have lowered your ranking considerably.
Still an achievement considering it's non CO2 and took more than 6 months to mature.

[isaacgoh]

On this topic of Impact, do you notice one major flaw with both mine and Dom's tank? Not much contrast of colours since we are mostly using Moss. Planning of the plants colors is very important in aquascaping. The link in planted.net also very good when they mentioned that red plants should be avoided placing in dead center unless you know what you doing because it creates a dark mood. That is why if you notice the good aquascapers uses red colored plants at the back or at the sides.

Stan, do you think we can get the Bonzai website to give us permission to their 2 links, I think it's very good to illustrate GS and Visual Movements. Not much have been mentioned about Visual Movement in other planted website but I think some of the experts used them or at least have the foresight to plan for it.

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I think the are exceptions to this. Eg Norbert's all green tank.

Bonsai's can be coaxed to move a certain direction with wire.
We can't do that but we can trim. Trimming produces sideshoots which thickens a bunch of stem plants. Slope trimming also leads the eye to the focus point.
You should make a road at the GS, put some crab nibbles there to entice all the CRS to eat there.
A focus point for you created with your current obsession!