Week 4: Texture and positive/negative space

Texture in photography helps to highlight features and details in an image when you capture textures of objects you can create form.

To be able to photograph texture you have to find it first, finding simple textures are all around us from the grass in our backyard to the plants in the garden when you start looking for textures to capture you'll end up finding them almost everywhere you go. 

When photographing textures there are three of the most common textures used in photography.

Detail in the surface is the most important features of an image while the object itself is of lesser importance to be able to photograph detail of a texture you have to get extremely close in order to see whats going on. 







In this image the camera has got really close to the subject bringing out the detail in the noodles.




Drama to be able to bring drama into an image with texture you would have to find a texture with appropriate colour or contrast shots of large canyons that have many layers of different coloured rocks would be good for an example of detail in texture also side light is the best light for bringing out drama in texture. 


In this image you can see that there are all different layers of rock that make the image look dramatic the water coming onto it also gives more dramatic texture to the photograph.

Information with this kind of texture the texture communicates information about an object that intensifies the impact of the photo. As an example an old rusty car would remind you what part of history the car was from. 


In this image you can see the information texture of which part of history this boat was from.

Positive & Negative space 

Positive space refers to the main focus of an image while negative space is the space in the background.

Positive space is the area that the subject occupies for example the positive space in an image could be a vase of flowers in a still life image or a persons face in a portrait and the negative space of an image would be the background.

There are two types of negative space which are opened negative space and closed negative space. Opened negative space is when you have negative space around four sides of your subject, no part of the subject touches the edge of the canvas or paper. Closed negative space is when the subject stretches across the composition to touch the edge, part of the subject closes off a part of the negative space changing it into a smaller shape.


The positive space in this image would be the part of which the flower occupies while the negative space in this picture would be the beach background. This is also an example of closed negative space because the subject touches the edges of the frame.


In this image the positive space is the areas the hot balloon occupies while the negative space would be the sky this is also an example of opened negative space because there are four edges which the subject doesn't touch.


Haru Sameshima was born in Japan but immigrated to New Zealand. Haru was taught about photography by his scientist father at an early age. Haru Sameshima worked in a small Dunedin photographic studio learning the craft before he attended Otago Polytechnic Art School then studying at Elam School of fine arts.


The positive space in this image is the areas the glass bottle occupies while the negative space is the black background around the bottle you can also see that it is an opened negative space image because it has negative space around four sides of the subject with the subject positioned in the centre away from all edges of the photograph.


The negative space in this image would be the sky and maybe the concrete part in the foreground of this picture this would be an example of closed negative space because the image stretches across the composition and touches the edges.


Yousuf Karsh was an American-Canadian portrait photographer he has been recognised as one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century by time magazine. 

Over his 67 year career Yousuf Karsh has photographed some of the most notable thinkers, artists, entertainers and leaders of the 20th century using a lighting technique he himself pioneered.

 
Audrey Hepburn- The positive space in this image is the areas the subject occupies you can see the subject is positioned in the centre of the frame making the white background the negative space of this image. I like that the subject is in black making her stand out more. In this image you can see the texture on the subjects clothing also the texture in the way her hair is styled. 



JFK- I like the way Yousuf Karsh has composed this image with the subjects hands closed together while gazing somewhere else it grabs the viewers attention to want to know what  the subject maybe looking at or thinking. The areas the subject occupies are the positive spaces while the negative space is the background and the area behind the subjects head. In this image you can see the texture in the subjects hair there is also texture in the subjects clothing.