What is negative space in photography, and do you need it? Let’s explore the reasons you might intentionally leave open areas in your image.
What is negative space?
I once did an informal poll, asking people to vote on their favorite of three images of peppers. Several people commented on the “dead space” in the middle of this photograph:
Ah-HA! It occurred to me that perhaps I should explain what the “dead space” is, and why it’s there.
Folks, that empty space in the middle of the image is negative space. It is intentionally left void for a number of reasons.
When to use negative space
The most common reason I’ve used negative space is to leave room for TEXT. Let’s look at an example from my own book. (Cue shameless plug.) My art director had a vision for the cover which included baked goods tumbling down the side and across the bottom. Here’s the image I provided:
That looks like a lot of open real estate! But check out the book cover:
Not so much empty real estate now, eh?
Side note: if you are planning on adding text to an image, the open area doesn’t necessarily need to be empty. You could shift the focus or the crop of the image to leave room, as I’ve done here in this pretend magazine cover of a real recipe I developed for Singing Dog Vanilla:
See how that piece of steak is NOT front and center? There is plenty of space for text, but the space is not empty.
Of course, you might simply prefer a little openness in your image. Maybe you want the audience to wander around your image with some space to rest their eyes. That’s a legitimate choice. It’s art! Do what you like!
A word of caution: it is best to plan for negative space. It might be tempting to just crop out a bunch of your image, but you may lose resolution. The better solution is to envision your ultimate image ahead of time, then work with your photographer to make the magic happen.
Check out my previous post, Hard Light vs. Soft Light.