Photography Ideas: Negative Space

Are you searching for a few photography ideas for a photography project? As long as you will be investing some time on a photo project, why not pick a project that develops your photography skills. Not surprisingly, there are many skills from which to choose. One skill that will help you develop your photography abilities, negative space, is presented in this post. Negative space is a compositional method that can be used to produce eye-catching photos. Therefore, let’s take a look at the technique?
Using Negative Space
At a fundamental level, any image can be broken down into three components
Frame: The border that defines the perimeters of the image.
Positive Space: The positive space is the subject of the image. This is normally the item on which the camera is focused.
Negative Space: The negative space is the rest of the image. It is located between the positive space and the frame.
Any photograph is formed, in varying proportions, of the frame, positive space, and negative space. In order to create impressive images, it is necessary to manage these components.
When composing photos, some people tend to think mostly in terms of the positive space. Put simply, they think primarily about the main subject of the photo. Little thought is put into the negative space. It is treated almost as an unimportant part of the photo. This is not the best way to compose an image! This is because, if managed properly, the negative space can do a couple of important things.
First: The negative space can function to define the positive space.
Second: The negative space can surround the positive space in a way that can make it more conspicuous.
So, exactly how can the negative space help to define the positive space? Basically, the negative space supplies additional detail that improves the story of the positive space. Consider the following example. An image might display a blooming plant. However, we may not understand a lot about the plant (e.g., such as where the plant is located). Where is this subject located? Maybe, it is situated in a garden. On the other hand, maybe not. The positive space of the photo can only be better defined with additional details. If the photographer were to show some of the terrain around the positive space, this would create some negative space that would certainly help to much better define the positive space.
Now, there is one extremely important point that should be remembered. The positive space should never be overpowered by the negative space. For this example, the photographer might render the negative space somewhat out of focus so that it becomes subservient to the positive space.
The main issue to keep in mind is that the function of the negative space is to help support the positive space rather than to compete with it. This acts to strengthen the image.
Making the positive space stick out is the other way that the negative space helps to strengthen images. This is due to the fact the negative space can help to control the eye of a viewer. This is accomplished because the negative space guides the attention toward the positive space. Obviously, all unproductive detail must be removed from the negative space in order to make it effective at focusing the attention. Otherwise, the viewer’s attention will be on the distracting detail.
In short, both spaces need to be taken into consideration when figuring out how to best compose an image. In simple terms, photographers need to pay as much attention to the negative space as they do the positive space.
The Photography Project
So, are you geared up to create a photography project? For this project, you should concentrate on capturing images that have carefully thought out negative spaces.
Wrap Up
Hopefully, this article served to get you started on a photography project. If you would like to check out several additional ideas, just click Creative Photography Ideas.