Negative space in Photography Composition

Composition

There are three principal compositional components to a photography image.

• Frame, The frame is the border that is all around the rest of the imag.
• Positive Space,The subject of the image. This is generally the item on which the camera is focused. 
• Negative Space, The rest of the image. It is located between the positive space and the frame. 

When many people go about composing an image, they concentrate their attention on the positive space. The negative space, gets very little thought. If it receives any consideration at all, it is more of an afterthought. This kind of approach can result in second-rate images. When correctly utilized, the negative space can serve two very important functions:

1. it can help in defining what the positive space is all about. Basically, it help to tell the story for the positive space.
2. It can Improve the positive space. Essencially the negative space help to make the positive space more noticeable.

Composition and Negative Space

The negative space can serve to help define the positive space by furnishing additional detail. As one example, a photograph may show part of a bridge. However, there may be few details that offer any suggestions of where the bridge is based. Is it in a crowded, urban park or in a forest? We can not tell from the close-up. If the photographer were to show some of the landscape, this would create some negative space that would certainly help to much better define the positive space. As a result, the image would be improved.
While utilizing a negative space can really strengthen an image, there is one thing that must be avoided. The negative space should never be allowed to overwhelm the positive space as this would serve to deteriorate the image.
Making the positive space stick out is the other way that the negative space helps to enhance images. This is accomplished due to the fact the negative space helps to control the attention of a viewer. It does this by helping to lead the viewer’s attention to the positive space. When utilized in this fashion, the negative space is often relatively devoid of detail (this gets rid of any unproductive detail).
In short, both spaces need to be taken into consideration when figuring out how to best compose an image. Basically, both spaces are of equal importance and should be treated as such. This will help improve the quality of the images that you capture.



Your Photography project
So, are you geared up to start a photography project? For this project, you should concentrate on capturing images where both spaces have been very carefully thought out. The goal is to carefully think about both spaces before the image is captured. This will require that you previsualize the image. That is, you must imagine what the image will look like before you capture the shot.