Photography Ideas: How To Use Negative Space

Doing a photography project is an excellent way to practice photography. Selecting a photography project that not only leads to some wonderful shots but also helps you develop your photography skills would be a very good idea. This article presents one particular skill, negative space, which you can use for a photography project that can help to develop your skills.

Negative space is a compositional method that can be employed to produce eye-catching images. So, let’s take a look at the technique?

<b>Negative Space and Composition</b>

There are three primary compositional components to a photography image.

<b>Frame:</b> The frame is the border that is all around the rest of the image.

<b>Positive Space:</b> The positive space is composed of the objects that the image is all about. Put simply, it is the main subject of the photograph.

<b>Negative Space</b> The space between the positive space and the frame.

When composing photos, many people tend to think mostly in terms of the positive space. Put simply, they think primarily about the main subject of the photo. The area around the subject, the negative space, ends up being whatever happened to be there at the particular moment the photo was taken. This is not the most effective way to compose an image! When managed well, the negative space can carry out two important functions. Therefore, the negative space can significantly improve an image:

<b>First:</b> The negative space can assist in defining what the positive space is all about. In other words, it helps to tell the story of the positive space.

<b>Second:</b> The negative space can encompass the positive space in a way that can make it more noticeable.

The negative space can function to help define the positive space by providing detail about the positive space. Consider the following example. An image may show a blooming plant. However, we may not understand a lot about the plant (e.g., such as where the plant is located). Additional information is required to better define the positive space. If the photographer were to show some of the landscape around the positive space, this would produce some negative space that would help to much better define the positive space.

However, when making use of the negative space in this fashion, it is important that the negative space not overpower the positive space. One method that might be utilized in this example is to use a shallow depth of field so that the negative space is somewhat out of focus. This would keep the negative space from competing with the positive space.

The primary 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.

The negative space can also help make the positive space stand out. This is accomplished due to the fact the negative space helps to control the attention of a viewer. It does this by helping to direct the viewer's attention to the positive space. When employed in this way, the negative space is generally relatively devoid of detail (this removes any distracting detail from the negative space).

Simply speaking, both spaces need to be considered when figuring out how to best compose an image. Basically, photographers need to pay just as much attention to the negative space as they do the positive space.

Do not forget, the better both spaces are designed, the better the finished photo will appear.

<b>Your Photography Project</b>

So, why not establish a photography project around this idea. For this project, you should focus on creating images that have carefully thought out negative spaces.

<b>In Conclusion</b>

This article offered just one idea for a photography project. However, much more can be learned.