![]() ![]() It’s so much more than just minimalist single-colour backgrounds. Usually what’s most important in the image is a sense of scale and breathing room for the subject, rather than the specific type of negative space. Negative space photography is about relationships and how the subject relates to expansive spaces, whether it’s a wide field of grass, a vast desert or an open sky. Likewise, desert sands with noticeable variation or a cloudy sky can also serve as dramatic, empty spaces, even though they are not one uniform colour. Grass can be a negative space, even though it has quite a bit of texture to it. ![]() Negative spaces don’t have to be uniform. They can be concrete walls, rolls of brightly coloured paper or black studio backgrounds. Negative spaces are often, but not always, solid backgrounds. “It might seem like it’s overly simple and not difficult, but in practise you have to think about your foreground and your background, as well as distracting elements and how to remove them.” “You have to know what you have is very strong,” says Milne. A landscape photo with a single figure in the distance that gives a sense of scale and loneliness is an example of negative space photography.īecause there are usually so few elements in a photo, they all have to carry a lot of weight. A good rule of thumb is that the amount of negative space should take up at least 50% of the photo to achieve the right effect. “You always want the space to steal the show,” says photographer Petecia Le Fawnhawk-Maggiori. Regardless of what your focal point or subject is, the space around it needs to be impossible to miss. “You have your focal point and very few other elements on the page.” That focal point or main subject is the “positive space” and the rest of the frame, be it a blank sky or studio white space, is the negative space. “It’s minimalism in photographic form,” says photographer Will Milne. “If the model or the performer is the noun,” says photographer Jimmy Marble, “the negative space is the adjective.” The emptiness (whatever form it takes) gives definition and emphasis to the subject. The viewer’s eyes may be drawn to a central figure, but they can’t help noticing the large section of emptiness that surrounds and defines that figure. It emphasises not just the subject, but the empty space around the subject. But in cases where you have a clear space around your subject, negative space can be a powerful compositional tool.Negative space photography is related to minimalist photography. If you leave a space around your subject, but the subject's surroundings are busy, it is more likely to distract from the subject than help draw the viewer's eye to the subject. The main thing to bear in mind with negative space is that for it to work well, it should ideally not be full of clutter. Plastered Against The Wall by Ian Sane on flickr (licensed CC-BY) ![]() Look at the shapes and how they relate to the space around them, and use this in helping you determining your composition. If you look at the photos above you'll see most of them are composed around the rule of thirds.įor photos where you can take your time, it can be a good idea to try and break your photo down into shapes, rather than thinking of the actual object(s) in the photo. The rule of thirds can provide a good general purpose guide. When composing an image, it can be difficult to find the right balance between positive and negative space. Stille by all martn on flickr (licensed CC-BY-ND) If instead you place the negative space behind the subject, it gives more of an emphasis to where the subject has come from. Placing negative space in front of the subject gives them somewhere to move into.ĭutch TT Vrijdag 27 juni by adriaan4 on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA) The Hidden Beauty! by VinothChandar on flickr (licensed CC-BY)Īnother popular use of negative space is for moving subjects. It can make the viewer feel like the subject is trapped inside the frame. Placing the subject near the edge of the frame with negative space behind them can give an image quite a different feeling. Harajuku Girl by pjan vandaele on flickr (licensed CC-BY) If a subject is looking off to one side of the frame, it will normally create a stronger photo to position the subject within the frame so that they have plenty of space to look into. One of the main uses for negative space is giving a subject somewhere to look into. It is clear where the subject is, and the space allows room for the subject to 'breathe'. Using negative space effectively ensures that your photo does not appear too cluttered. ![]()
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