This is about paying attention to the area surrounding your main subject. This can be from pure black or monochrome colour to a cluttered background behind your subject. The idea is to create a photograph with a strong subject and a much more subordinate background, from stark to cluttered but definitely “subordinate”. Have a look at Joe McNally’s portraits, which shows the a range of nagative space backgrounds. Another source of inspiration is this article from the Digital Photography School. For more inspiration click here for the Google image library on negative space.
a leaf in the woods
ISO 400 200mm f6.3 1/160
the background is muted
a feather caught in a bush
ISO 400 200mm f6.3 1/640
the background was blurred, Gaussian blur
the patterns in the background echoes the shape of the feather
Love this example of blurry negative space.
I went to Carburn Park the other day to see what I could photograph in negative space. The first bird that I photographed was a Bald Eagle circling the blue sky. I cropped the picture and sharpened the bird so that you could see the detail. I may have cropped too much but the bird was pretty impressive. Shot in AP, 400mm, F7.1, S 1/3200, ISO 500, Auto WB and Matrix Metering.
Being aware of negative space in a landscape image. I was intrigued by the dominant large ice surfaces on the bow river as well as the dramatic cloud formation. Played around with different wide angle settings, from 14mm to 35 mm. This is a slightly cropped image taken with a zoom lens at 14 mm.
Here is the HDR version produced in Lightroom Classic.
This is the same HDR image processed a second time in Aurora HDR software.
ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/320.
I like the small subjects contrasting against their negative space environment. I would have cropped the dark foreground out, or alternatively I would have cloned some snow into the dark grass, but still would have cropped some of the bottom of the image.
ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/320.
Our backyard suet feeder attracts our resident downy woodpecker as well as magpies, flickers, sparrows and nuthatches. I took advantage of the sun spotlighting the downy and the feeder while the garage in the background was in the shade. He’s got suet on his beak.
ISO 3200, 355 mm, f/11, 1/1000 s
Manufactured negative space by selecting and masking the sky, Painting the mask with uniform pale blue. Then applying a gradient and adjusting the exposure.
SOOC just cropped. I did leave a peripheral eye sight challenge. Can you see it? This is located between the S.S. Moyie dry dock and the Earl Grey golf course.
Wow, this is extreme negative space. The orange really stands out.
Here is the image I prefer. All that is changed was cropping wherein the left side doesn’t have the eye sight challenge, and the colour adjustment was done using the auto levels in Apple Preview.
I’m not sure if these varieties of blue hues were detected under the recent snow or where else they may have come from. Any suggestions?
This image was taken in my home and is an example of negative space. No choice but to focus on the flames!
I love how you have captured the colour variations of the flames. The big flame is perfectly positioned in the center. I would have cropped the bottom and place the bottom of the flames just above the edge of the image for a more dramatic effect.
Another “in-home” example. I have these metal sculptures of musicians and often use them as subjects. In this case, it is on my kitchen counter which provided the negative space so the subject would show up. I regret the top of the cello is almost out of the frame but the idea of negative space is there regardless.
Nothing like inspiration when the sun is shining through the window. This is my late blooming amaryllis in front of my kitchen window. I used the depth of field from the window and the garage in the background to provide the white back drop and back lit exposure. This was using my 300 lens, F5.6, 1/160 sec and set the ISO at 400. Leaving it on auto ISO washed out the colors. Only edit was a slight increase in saturation. I left the vertical and horizontal alone as this was due to the weight of the flowers pulling the stem down.
I love the translucent quality of the petals.
Top of a children’s climbing jungle gym. I thought that the red ball and bars stood out against the blue sky. Taken with my Pixel 8 phone.
f/1.68, 1/798 sec, ISO 18, 24 mm zoom
FYI………Here is the image of the flame, cropped as Henri suggested.
Thanks for the suggestion, Henri.
My attempt at Negative Space was to find a well and capture people walking along side of it. I settled on the Tsu ‘Tina Costco as my wall prop.
Using my Fuji XT-5 and a 55-140mm lens I waited unit people walked along the wall.
F 8/ ISO 1250/ SS@1/400/ Handheld converted to B&W and exposure pushed up to try and minimize the different materials in the wall.
Version two, same store but a different facing wall and a Costco employee and friend heading out to collect carts.
Handlheld, F5.5/ ISO 640/ SS@1/400
Used a wall picture as the negative space background for the horse ornament. Shot with Canon EOS 6D Mark IV – 1/200 sec @ f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 1000.
I cut down the feather reed grass in the front yard and while it was sitting by the back door waiting to go to the green bin I noticed the contrast with the blue velvet curtain.
ISO 800, 47 mm, f 5.6, 1/60 s
Made at home reflection on a piece of aluminum foil
f/4.5, 1/250, iso1800
Flowers in a negative space. Taken with my 50-230 mm lens at f/4.5, 1.20 sec, ISO 100
Drone photo from the archives, showing negative space. Post processing in Luminar with the aerial presets, darkened the foreground and the upper left corner and added some warmth. The lighter contrast of the slight curve on the left leads the eye into the subject – my brother-in-law and my nephew.
White space…taken with my cell phone
Not sure if it truly fits as negative space but here is my submission