Hello everyone and welcome to the June photography challenge! This month we are going to use negative space in composing our photo. This is a great way to frame a photograph, and one that I tend to use quite often. It isn’t a setting on your camera, but an artistic technique to use when framing your images, and one that results in very eye catching and thoughtful photographs. In art, the positive space is the subject. Everything else is the negative space. And this is what can really make a photograph shine. Often we concentrate on photographing the subject and neglect to see the space around the subject. But when we do pay attention this area, we can really change the emotion of the image. Negative space can be used to draw the eye to the subject so you have a more appealing photograph. Often negative space is a wide open area such as a sky, field, or large color. Essentially, it is the area around and between your subject(s). Many times the rule of thirds is applied in these instances, which we discussed in the April photography challenge. Think of negative space as uncluttered and “clean” space such as the blank canvas on clean and simple scrapbook layouts. So your photography challenge is to create a photo with negative space. This should be a new photo that you take this month. Your subject will be surrounded by open, clean space that allows the eye to be immediately drawn to the subject. Some tips: Be thoughtful in composing your image when looking through the view frame or screen. Remove any distracting elements in the background. Move your subject farther away from the background to have it stand out more. Compose your image using the rule of thirds. Sometimes stepping back and including more of the wide angle vantage (as opposed to the macro challenge last month) can make it easier to see the negative space. If you have the ability adjust the settings on your camera, you can practice with adjusting them to blur your background, which is called “bokeh”. A wide/open aperture (smaller f-stop number) will allow you to do so. In design, including scrapbooking, this negative space is often a great journaling spot! Just play around with the placement of the words to make sure you don't detract from the feeling you were trying to convey with the negative space. These are a few of my photos that show the use of negative space: And here is my layout with a new photo using negative space for this challenge: Please remember the monthly challenge rules: Your page must contain at least 75% Lilypad product. Your page should be posted to the Lilypad Gallery and then linked to the Challenge Layouts thread so it can be tracked, and to this thread. The Lilypad uses a percent system for our challenges; the number of challenges you participate in determines the store discount you will receive at the end of the month: 2 challenges = 10% off 4 challenges = 20% off 6 challenges = 30% off If you complete 7 challenges, you will receive a coupon for 30% off, plus you will be entered to win a guest spot on the Lilypad Creative Team! The first seven challenges will be posted on the first of the month; the eighth challenge is the BYOC challenge, which is posted on BYOC release day. Each page counts for one challenge (you cannot use one layout for multiple challenges). I hope you have fun with this month's challenge and it encourages you to pull out your camera and take some new photos!
Your photos to inspire us are wonderful. I will keep this challenge in mind over the next few days and see what I can photograph.
I made my page yesterday without reading the instructions exactly . The photo is older than a month, so don´t count it, but I want to share it with you