Negative Space is the space around the subject of a design, be it in a photo, a landscape or a piece of music, which draws attention to the intended subject. Negative space is a place of “silence”, of giving the eye a place to breathe within a design. Its purpose is to eliminate distractions and heighten the drama of the subject.
Negative Space is sometimes called “white space” but the area around the subject doesn’t need to be white. It could be a blue sky, a dark room with a lighter subject, a red wall, a wooden fence—whatever you want it to be! The key here is to use that space to draw your eye away from it and toward the subject.
I love that the concept of negative space can be applied to so many of the Arts—photography, storytelling, music, painting. Here I will talk about how to apply negative space in photography fairly easily.
Easy Techniques:
1. Choose an appropriate background.
Places with lots of open space—beaches, fields, city skylines etc. lend themselves to creating negative space well. But you can find plenty of inspiration in your own home—kitchen chopping boards, textured wallpaper, bathroom tiles… The idea is to choose something that isn’t distracting—you can still add texture—in fact a bit of texture may enhance the photos.
2. Use the rule of thirds.
Place your photo’s subject in one (or a couple) of the 4 intersections or 4 planes, leaving the rest of the photo “blank”. Adhering to this rule means that you can achieve a sense of balance between subject and negative space.
3. Fiddle your knobs
If you are using a DSLR, change your aperture/f-stop to a smaller “number” so that your background is blurred.
It’s counterintuitive (because it’s a fraction, not a number), but the smaller the number of your f-stop, the larger the hole in your lens. The larger the hole, the more light is let in, creating a shallower depth-of-field with an out-of-focus background. Got it? And here you were thinking you were a photographer, not a mathematician…
4. Crop, crop, CROP!
If you take a photo and it has lots of extra “faff”, crop the photo so there are fewer distractions.
Putting it all together
In the below photo (taken with an iPhone 4), the “blank” sky provides a contrast between the two elements that make up the subject of the “scene”—a group of people on the beach watching an emergency services aeroplane. I have placed the plane in the top right “intersection” and the people on the beach in the bottom “plane”.
Similarly, the below photo is classic “white space”. The red stripes of the girl’s shirt are a strong statement, so you need some neutral space around her to counterbalance this.
It’s important not to fill your photo with negative space “just because”. And don’t assume that the more white space you have, the better the photo will be! Everything in balance, my friends. Both the subject (the positive space) and the negative space need to be in balance and the negative place must help tell the story of the photo.
Google “Negative Space Photography” and you’ll see hundreds of inspiring photos that employ the technique beautifully.
Negative space not only gives your eye a place to rest, when it’s done well, it facilitates the telling of the photo’s story. Experiment a little with your photos—reduce the “noise” around your subjects to create some magical negative spaces!
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