examples of positive and negative space in photography

Examples of positive and negative space in photography how to#

“It might seem like it’s overly simple and not difficult, but in practice 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 emphasizes not just the subject, but the empty space around the subject. Negative space photography is related to minimalist photography.

Examples of positive and negative space in photography