Photography is a fun hobby or pastime. Some people even pursue this as a professional career. There are a multitude of career paths photographers can go down. A few career jobs that are interesting and fun are photojournalists, advertising services and wedding photographers. In this day and age, many youngsters like to take pictures and do not even realize the math they use when they take these photographs. Unlike the rookie photographers on social media, professionals utilize math and calculate everything they do. This can range from shooting the photograph all the way to printing the image. Photographers use math especially for the camera settings as well. An example of math used in photography is the composition of an image. They apply the rule of thirds, which is a well-known rule for people that take pictures. Professional photographs understand the mathematical dynamics behind using a camera and apply this knowledge to their daily jobs. Math is integrated into everyone’s daily life especially anyone that has a career in photography. It may seem questionable as to how math is related to taking pictures, but taking a closer look at how photographers utilize mathematics will show the importance is has in photography. The art of photography is an example of how math is applied in the real world. This paper will explore three fundamental aspects of math found in photography, which is the shutter speed, the relationship between aperture and focal length and the rule of thirds.

The shutter speed in photography is the exposure time the digital sensor or film is exposed to light. The shutter speed is important to take into consideration when photographing, because if there is little light you would have a longer shutter speed and if there is more light a shorter shutter speed. The shutter speed can be manipulated and altered in different ways to create unique effects for the images. The shutter speed is determined by fractions of seconds.

Determining the aperture is just as important as the shutter speed. The aperture is the opening of the camera lens which light passes through. The diameter of a camera lens and the iris of our eye is comparable to each other. The diameter of the lens is used to measure aperture. The environment determines the ability of the aperture and understanding how to calculate how much you need to open it up is relative to focal length. Focal length is the distance between the camera and whatever it is focusing on. For example, if the lens of the camera has a focal length of 28-mm with the aperture at 14-mm and the focus is on a 20 m by 30 m wall, the wall is four times larger than the area of a lens of 55-mm and same aperture. The focus has an area of 600m2 so the focal length for the 55-mm lens is twice the area the 28-mm lens can capture. The 28-mm lens has an area of 150 m2, which means the 28-mm lens is four times greater than the 55-mm lens in area. This would suggest the 55-mm lens can only capture ¼ of the scene all the while ¼ of the light can be seen by the 28-mm lens. This example showed how much area a lens can cover by using simple multiplication.

The rule of thirds was briefly mention in the introduction, so it is no surprise that this is another element in photography that uses mathematics. The rule of thirds is basically the composition of the photo. The rule of thirds is dividing the image into nine equal quadrants on a horizontal and vertical line up. This guideline of composition gives the photographer a sense of orientation and balance of what is in the photo. The ratio of 3:3 is based on the Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci sequence is found in all types of art forms and considered the Golden Ratio or the Fibonacci Spiral. In the Fibonacci sequence, each number is the sum of the previous two. For example, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and this can continue on and on. Universally, the Fibonacci Spiral is a compositional guideline that makes the image pleasing to the human eye. According to the book, Proofs that Really Count : The Art of Combinatorial Proof, it says, “Math is the science of patterns. As we shall see, the Fibonacci numbers exhibit many beautiful and surprising relationships.” This statement is very true in that it helps photographers take better photographs.

In conclusion, photography is very much similar to art and uses some basic math to help with taking the perfect pictures. Photographers must be quick thinkers when applying some of these method to their profession, so they can capture their subject. It is clearly shown through the use of shutter speed, the relationship between aperture and focal length and the rule of thirds that math is used throughout photography. The relationship between shutter speed and the geometric sequence all the way to the use of the Fibonacci Sequence is a crucial element in photography.