Negative Space

This element isn’t about minimalism which is a very specific genre in art. This is about minimising the content within the frame to further focus attention on your topic. By leaving empty space in an image there is the very real potential to make it uninteresting, but if done correctly it can enhance the shot and focus the attention of viewer. 

By pulling back and leaving a vast empty space on both sides of frame this shot of the ‘Devils Tower’ in Wyoming shows the scale and prominence of the rock towering above the forested landscape.  

In this shot from the Tallgrass Prairie in Northern Oklahoma I wanted to capture the beautiful wide open space of the prairies. Buffalo are probably the most iconic prairie animal and, when combined with the open space, they tell the story perfectly. The fact that there are so few buffalo in the image adds to the overall story of the American west. 

The gallery below shows more images that make use of negative space, sometimes to draw attention to a specific topic, sometimes to suggest wide open spaces, and sometimes to create scale.

To give scale to this shot of White Sands in New Mexico I eliminated any sign of life (though there is plenty around) I pushed the horizon up beyond the rule of thirds leaving a perfectly ‘clean’ image of the stunning desert sand against the blue sky.  Minimising the content and leaving space can really bring something to an image but as with all things composition related, it needs to be considered carefully when determining what message you are trying to convey in your image.