I held my first workshop in a long while on Friday. Overall it went very well. Of course there are always a few things I will do differently next time, such as spend more time defining concepts.

One of the downsides with knowing something well, is that I forget that others may not know “basics” that are second nature to me.

For example, I started talking about negative space in an image. I was getting blank stares until a friend of mine, who was sitting in on the course, asked me to define negative space….

Negative space is the room around your subject. The area in the picture that is not taken up by subject matter. More specifically, it is the shape of this area.

The famous example is a vase where the  negative space looks like two people facing each other.

The example I used in the course was from a music video I was involved with.

Tino-3
Playing with negative space

In most images, the people would be the subject. In this image, I have underexposed the people so they become the negative space, except this negative space becomes the subject{{1}}.

My point is that as a photographer, you must be aware of what is going on in your viewfinder. One reason I like using a tripod is that it slows me down, and lets me examine what the camera sees. You can also “chimp”, that is, look at the image on your camera’s display immediately after you take the shot, analyze what you took, and then compare that to what you thought you took. If circumstances allow, retake the photo with the changes you noticed and start over.

With digital, it is (almost too) simple to take lots of shots. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Sounds complicated, but

[[1]] Of course, this being me, I like to take the “rules” of art and play with them….[[1]]

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