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.

11 Responses to “Photography Ideas: Negative Space”

  1. low fat diet says:

    Thank you……

    What I get from your blog is, you are an excellent writer and you know what the readers want. I wish you all the good luck in your future posts….

  2. ugg boots shop says:

    I am the first time on this site and am really enthusiastic about and so many good articles. I think it’s just very good.I LOVE THEM.
    I hope that you can publish more articeles

  3. black ugg boots says:

    I am the first time on this site and am really enthusiastic about and so many good articles. I think it’s just very good.I LOVE THEM.
    I hope that you can publish more articeles

  4. Carrie Keagan Pics says:

    Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We got a good book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your information.

  5. Seth Shreeves says:

    Helo there, well I think that your written work is rather perceptive as it talks about plenty of interesting information. In Any Event, was curious whether you would willing to exchange web links with my web portal, as I am looking forward to build links to further spearhead and reach better audience for my website. I do not mind you putting my contacts at the front page, just accepting this links on this page is good and enough. By the way, would you be kind enough reach me at my web portal if you are keen in exchanging links with me, I would really like that. Thank you very much and hope to get a reply from you very soon!

  6. Great article, thank you very much!

  7. Great article, thank you very much!

  8. GSX-R750 guy says:

    Next time you should condense your post, try to leave out the parts that people ignore.

  9. frank says:

    You know after reading this it kind of faded from me till today when I needed it. During a portrait session was remembered your negative space and used it for many of my shots. Really cool thanks for the tips.

  10. Cool, there is actually some good points on this post some of my friends might find this relevant, will send them a link, many thanks.

  11. Gus Nimick says:

    Interesting read, thanks! I finally see the larger picture :)

Leave a Reply