Wk 4 - Positive and Negative Space

Positive and Negative Space

What is positive space?
It is the part of your photo which is the central focus, it is your subject.
What is negative space?
This is the space which surrounds your subject. The purpose of negative space is to direct your eye/attention to the subject.

f/29, 1/160, ISO 1600

Negative space can be anything such as a surface, patterns, faces, clothing etc... Above and below are my examples of positive and negative space. The negative space is the wood chips, i position my subject (the mushrooms) on an intersecting line to reinforce its focus. I like the contrast in shapes and forms the wood chips being linear while the mushrooms are circular.

f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 200

My subject is the two little green plant matter. The use of leading lines and the solid red directs right to the little plants. This is a photo of the rear lights of my car.

Self directed:

Here are some shots i took using positive and negative space -

f/36, 1/250, ISO 400

This is a shot of mt Wellington. I framed the branches around the mount, i focused on the midground to give the photo some texture. There is few textural elements in the photo, the different shapes of the leaves some are straight edged where on others their is more furry looking leaves. The sand is has some flat areas and wavy parts which lead your eye to the ripples in the water.

f/36, 1/320, ISO 400

This is another shot, i moved over positioning mt Wellington on an intersecting line. These shots look as though they were shot in black and white, i deliberately didn't adjust my settings to bring in more light to highlight how negative space can be used to reinforce the subject.

f/20, 1/250, ISO 400

This was taken at the MIT Game of the Week rugby game. The sign is the main subject, it dominates the photo by its size and because it is in the foreground. By including the grass and roof top in the background i reinforced the colours of the sign. The colour of the sky and clouds also add a boost of colour to complement the sign

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Wk 2 Depth of field Artist: Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastiao Salgado Is a Brazillian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He started taking photographs in his 30s. Sebastiao Salgado works on long term, self assigned projects. He devotes years at a time to document the stories of people and places. Many of his works have been published as books The Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, Migrations and Genesis. His most famous pictures are of the gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada.

Sebastiao has an amazing body of work. The images i have chosen showcase how he uses Depth of Field to capture the essence of his subjects.

This is an example of wide depth of field. As we know wide depth of field focus range covers a large area front-to-back. Depending on a lens camera range this could be from several yards in front of the focus plane to nearly infinity behind. These types of photos are often associated with landscapes and architectural photography. It is useful to show a multitude of visual elements or characteristi…

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Bulb function is a shutter speed setting which allows for long exposure times (wikipedia). This function is used when there is not enough light available, such as shooting at night. When taking photos at night the shutter needs to open longer.

Bulb function task:
Take three photos at 3", 6" and 8" - with your subject moving out of the shot 3/4 of the way through or stand in the shot. It took us a few takes to get this right - especially as it was hard to see her.

These shots were taken outside at night. Here are some of our pictures taken with the help of my model Pela

I asked Pela to walk through this photo after 1 second - you can see her shoes at the bottom of the shot
Pela walked through this photo after 3 seconds

I asked Pela to take a step every 2 seconds

Pela started walking through after 3 seconds, you can see her figure as well as her shoes at the bottom of the photo ore time is equivalent to more light, so when you lack light, you can almost always co…

Portfolio Wk 6 - presentation ideas

My plan for printing this week has been halted because i have two options in mind. Last week i was really pushing to get some tests prints done so that i could make a decision on which paper to print on. The four images i chose were ones that i thought signified the vision of my work. This is to produce images which showed the nature of my subjects. An embodiment of their personality, from my perspective. These four images were strong edits i thought, and captured a side to my subjects well, these came out of a natural flow and connection in the studio. In terms of paper i have chosen the Hammulher paper, mainly because i like the warm tones that it gives to the black and white images. I also like the defined details in the textures which elevate the photos when they're viewed up close. The test printing was valuable because i was able to see the images on the prints, which gives me a better perspective as to how the work will be viewed close up.

I got on the buzz of prese…

Photography Cert. 2014 -

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