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Photography Composition: Negative Space

Negative space is the space within a photograph which is left unused. Negative space is a great way to help add emphasis to your main subject. Negative space is generally just one color (or black or white) and takes up a fairly large portion of a photograph. Using a simply background such as a clear sky or a white table are two good examples of items which could produce negative space.

However, negative space doesn't need to be a solid color. Negative space can also be a textured color with various degrees of details. For example, in the picture below the negative space is the field of wheat before the farm.

negative space

Other photography pages of interest

High and low key photography
How to use negative space in photography
Using rhythm and pattern in photography
Rule of thirds
Golden ratio

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