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Negative
Space.
Zut!
Is this something that the spaceship Enterprise will have to
overcome? Or perhaps a psychological state? Possibly, we are able to
take whatever slant we like of course, but lets assume 'negative
space' refers to a visual design term whose companion is 'positive
space' and together they monopolize the spacial characteristics of
our photographic image.
But
to take a step back before we go farther into design theory. When we
take a photograph we actually take a piece of reality and make a two
dimensional image from it, just as a story about a real event refers
to reality but is no longer the event itself, but is rather an
artificial construct with its own conventions and ideas. Art itself,
as Joni Mitchell recently said in a CBC interview comes from the root
artificial ( or artifice). The singer and her song are obviously not
the original circumstance that may have suggested it. I'm beating
this idea hard because it is the essential concept that must be
grasped before the idea of designing or composing one's photograph
can be built upon.
An
image is made, whether drawn, painted, two or three dimensional or
photographed, with the purpose of communication, just like a story,
poem or a piece of music is made to transmit some idea or other, and
good ones do this with some clarity and intent. There is
nothing to be gained by jumbling and creating confusion (although we
see and hear this technique used all the time by leaders of all
stripes for their own propagandist ends). So, now we come to negative
space and it role in visual communication.
A
few years ago I took a lovely shot of my big traditional schooner but
was annoyed to find it had an extra mast in the print. I had seen
only the positive space, my ship, and had not checked in the
background , the negative space, for that pesky mast of a yacht
behind her. My binocular vision had created separation but the
monocular camera and two dimensional print had not.
This
summer I was photographing a poppy, picked it and held it up with one
hand against the blue sky and snapped its photograph. I had thought
ahead ( pre-visualized) and removed it from the clutter of the garden
and placed it so the blue negative space around it added to rather
than detracted from the effect in the final image.
I
am photographing my granddaughter swinging on a branch over the waves
foaming onto the beach. With all the rapid action, this is difficult
to do, but I pause before beginning and select a very low camera
angle facing out to sea, so the camera is at the surf line and my
subject high above it. I have manipulated my photograph so the
resulting image will separate the positive image cleanly from the
negative space around it and coincidentally create a much more
dynamic picture in the process.
 |
| The blurred forms of summertime dry ocean spray are still the subject, even thought the usual conventions of picture taking are reversed. The sharp background is the negative space in this case. Finding new ways of designing is not just for the challenge; getting the viewer to take a fresh look is important if we are to communicate. |
In
many cases I find that a slight cropping will bring the positive
space firmly to the edges of the frame and so organize the negative
space around my main subject into varied shapes that help the design
and avoids the problem of one large uninteresting background. One can
blur the negative or positive space through manipulation of the depth
of field or, in the computer, darken or lighten or soften or replace
one colour with another. To suggest only a few possibilities.
And
yet it is so hard to generalize, and formulas for successful pictures
are not worth much in the end, just as rhyming in itself does not
make a poem or 'painting in oils' guarantee a great picture. It is a
very nuanced thing and only training ones eye to observe everything,
positive and negative, and being willing to endlessly experiment will
lead to picture making proficiency over time. That is the challenge
for all of us.
 |
| Which is negative space, foreground or background? I have used a 'frame' to guide the eye towards the yacht, so is that the subject, the positive space? Or is the very interesting rock formation that fills half the space the positive? I like this image because of the interplay, the permanently unresolved space that " just keeps on going". |
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