Managing spaces

Knowing the positive and negative spaces when composing photos can help create better images, writes Joseph Cheung

PHOTOS basically consist of two major spaces — positive and negative. What are they and how can you use them to improve your photos? Positive space is the subject of the image. This is any part of the photo that jumps out from its surroundings, generally the element on which the camera is focused, along with other noteworthy areas of detail.

Negative space refers to the rest of the image or the opposite of the positive space. It is that part of the image that doesn’t attract as much attention, the part surrounding the main element of interest that is the positive space.

Both spaces must be taken into consideration when figuring out how to make the best of your composition. Both are of equal importance and should be treated as such.

The goal is to carefully think about both spaces before the image is captured. For this, you need to imagine what the image will look like before you capture the shot.

So where do we start from here? How do we strike a balance on the spaces? How do we apply compositional technique that can be used to produce eye-catching photos?

The pictures on this page will show how I took full advantage of positive and negative spaces during my visit to Mount Bromo a few years back. The tips may assist you in this technique.

1. The long journey: This photo shows two horsemen riding their horses. The background forms the negative space. This is fairly a straight-forward frame with beautiful surroundings. (Exif ISO200, f4.0, 1/1250sec, FL155mm)

2. Two worlds: The larger part in this photo, which is the misty area, is the negative space splitting the temple and hill. The temple and the hill are the positive space and also my main subjects here. Most photographers will either take only the temple or the hill in their frame. (Exif ISO200, f10, 1/1250sec, FL113mm)

3. The adrenaline rush: On the way to my next photo shoot, I positioned my camera with my tripod facing out from the jeep to capture this image. Play with the shutter speed to intensify the sense of speed from the tyres to the sandy lines. Taking this photo can be quite risky as you can easily drop your gear. The jeep here is the positive space while the rest is the negative space. (Exif ISO100, f16, 1/40sec, FL12mm)

4. sloPPy PaTh: In this frame, I treated the sandy dune with its pattern as the negative space and the horseman with his pet as the main subject, the positive space. Focusing on the horseman and placing my gear at a low angle was challenging because of the soft sand. (Exif ISO100, f4, 1/1600sec, FL70mm)

5. dangerous TerriTory: A negative space is not an empty space. In this frame, a local resident stands behind a part of the smokey crater of Mount Bromo during the Kasada Festive season. The large negative space shows how gigantic the crater is. One may ask, which one is the main subject? What do you think? (Exif ISO100, f4, 1/3200sec, FL85mm)