Beauty fills space.
Walking into the Wegmans in Abingdon, MD, I saw this great negative space behind the flowers with colorful plants and a nicely textured wall. I moved plants away, leaving only one plant. I then brought the image in Photoshop at 13x19in @300dpi and sharpened the image. Then I cropped just the plant on a new layer and increased the saturation to 80 the made that layer 60% opaque.
Assignment: Negative space is one of the most important composition concepts in photography. And not just photography. Negative space has been used for hundreds of years in art, design, and architecture. It is also sometimes referred to as ‘white space’. Negative space is the area in the photo around the subject. So in the example above, the wall is the negative space. The young girl is the main focus in the photo and we want the user’s eye to go straight to her. The negative space plays a supportive, though very important, role by making sure that the subject gets all the attention. The wall ‘blocks’ other elements that can steal the viewers’ attention. The use of textures and colors create a contrast to make the subject stand out even more. And the lines in the negative space also point towards the subject.
