Photo Friday: Positive/Negative Space

Today's Photo Friday can be done no matter what type of camera you have! We're talking about positive and negative space.

Negative space is defined as "the space around the subject of an image." and positive space is your actual subject. If you're more visual, in the photo below the black area is negative space and the baby is the positive space . Areas of a picture that contain "nothing" are important visual elements that provide balance in an image.



Why do we care about this? Sometimes I think we are so caught up in just TRYING TO GET THE PICTURE that we forget about the space around our subject. Especially with children, I think having negative space around them makes them look little (and helps us focus on their faces instead of our unfolded laundry in the background) Don't forget to look up or down to find some clean spaces--sometimes the sky or even your carpets work great!

Used correctly, your negative space should compliment not compete with your subject.

Settings note: Having your camera set to a lower aperture also helps to blur out your background and really make your subject stand out as that positive space.

The Image Is Found are photographers who ROCK at positive/negative space. This session for example.

A couple examples:







Go out and try it!

{this is where I would write something about making negative space a positive experience, but I won't. That would be cheesy}