The theme of this week’s showcase of mobile photography is negative space which highlights 10 beautiful photographs that make excellent use of this compositional technique to create some very striking images.
From the simplicity of Alice1280’s beach side shot featuring a couple of fishermen to the way Laurence Bouchard has used a creative backdrop to frame his solitary figure. All photographs in this weeks showcase show how you can use the space that surrounds a subject to create a simple and effective composition.
Do you have a favourite photo from this week’s showcase? Let us know which in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Finally, hashtag your photos with #mobiography for a chance of getting featured in future showcases.
Fishing
‘Fishing‘ by Alice1280 – “I have always been intrigued by negative space. I removed a lot of the backround noise. They are walking towards the sunrise and i wanted to bring out the shadows.”
Disturbed – The Sound Of Silence
‘Disturbed – The Sound Of Silence‘ by djoskowiak – “The photo was edited in the application RNI Films. One of the BW filters was used. Additionally, the contrast was slightly corrected.
The photo was taken in Park ?wierklaniec (Poland) at down. I was inspired by the peace and quiet of that moment. The sun was rising, the water was smooth and still, and only this small and lonely plant was stuck over the surface of the water waiting for new day, which was yet to come…. And I caught that moment.”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by Hkeithiii – “This shot was taken during my first visit to Rosarito, Mexico. My family and I were visiting El Bufadora. Capturing not only the main site but also the structures and surrounding culture was my objective. Getting to the final site required a long walk through a ton of outdoor shops which is where I knew I wanted to compose this shot. Once I was under the structure I noticed two birds flying so I quickly lined up my composition, set focus on the highlights to get the detail of the clouds and that was that. I used the native iPhone camera with Snapseed and VSCO for post processing. ”
A moment
‘A moment‘ by idieuwke – “My eye was immediately drawn by this couple as they stood gazing out to sea. Liking the contrast between their dark clothes and the bright sky I quickly shot two photo’s.
I brought this image into Snapseed for cropping and fine tuning and opened the resulting image in Mextures where I added a little movement in the sky as I tried to cocoon the couple into their own shared world. I amplified this effect in Lens Distortions. For added drama and to accentuate the contrast between light and dark I made the image black and white in vint b&w mii”
Shape memory
‘Shape memory‘ by Jen Burnett – “This photo was taken at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, USA. It’s a memorial for the passengers and crew on board the 4th plane hijacked on 9/11. My visit was on a sunny afternoon, and the shapes formed by the architecture and deep shadows caught my eye. I used negative space in part to emphasize the geometry and also to isolate the individual walking by. I wanted to impart a sense of emptiness and to an extent loneliness, and highlight the scale of the architecture. I shot this with my iPhone 7 and all edits were made on my iPhone using the VSCO app with minor adjustments (sharpen, clarity, exposure and contrast) in addition to converting to grayscale. ”
Never trust a zip..
‘Never trust a zip..‘ by Laurence Bouchard – “‘Never trust a zip’ was shot just around the corner from the National Art Center in Roppongi.
There’s a cool tunnel at the back of the center with bits of art on the walI. I particularly like the zip art as a back drop and if you get there late afternoon you get these great shadows forming against the wall.
Fortunately it’s also quite a busy street so once I’d decided on the composition it wasn’t long until the right person walked into the frame.
I then tweaked the image a bit using the noir and vignette filters in Snapseed.”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by Marczetterblom – “The wonderful thing about visiting South Eastern Sweden – where this shot was taken with the Hipstamatic app – in September is that during off season the beautiful long beaches are almost deserted.
I love to wander along the ocean and in the distance see the silhouette of a lone wanderer, a couple hand in hand or someone walking his or her dog. People look so small compared to the enormous ocean. On this particular day, the depth of field was limited due to fog. The ocean appeared almost like a giant wall.
For this particular shot I used the Eric lens, which has a de-saturated effect with interesting colour pops, and the Blanko film, which have a nice texture. Some additional in-app slider adjustments, besides cropping the photo and keeping a large negative space, were also necessary to give the image the right mood.”
Tower
‘Tower‘ by Georgia Barlow – “I am currently doing a 365 Project and I took a photo of this tower in May. The architecture and details of it really fascinates me. The church the tower is part of is near my university and I had to take a bus nearby, so it was the perfect opportunity to take another photo of it and experiment with minimal photography – something I have always admired but struggle with. I tried to get as much of the tower in as possible while eliminating other distractions. In editing I used Snapseed to rotate, crop, and enhance the details using Tonal Contrast and HDR. Then I opened up Enlight and used Heal to remove unnecessary parts of the image so the focus would all be on the tower. I used Enlight rather than Snapseed for this because sometimes Snapseed alters other parts of the image when you use this tool although it is easier to use than Enlight’s version. I then opened it in Mextures and found a formula (I think one I had imported) that looked good with it and gave it a kind of dreamlike look. I continued to refine this until I was happy with it and then I saved my new formula (WIVFTCR). I felt that the picture was a little grainy and sometimes the Instagram filters can smooth an image out. I ended up using Charmes, which added a bit of yellow and I then used the editing tools within Instagram to make sure the details of the tower and the clouds stood out.”
Untitled
‘Untitled‘ by thephototypinglife – “I took this photo while my wife and I were on a much-needed vacation near Point Reyes, California. We tend to overdo it on vacation with exploring, hiking, wining and dining, etc., but we’ve been better recently at carving out some relaxation in between. This shot happened during one of those moments and wouldn’t have happened otherwise. We happened upon a small cafe with outdoor seating (as well as great fish tacos and service). Since we weren’t in a rush, we had a chance to look around more and let our minds wander. That’s when I noticed the visual of the bright yellow umbrella cleanly set against the perfectly blue sky. I’ve recently been drawn to minimalistic imagery, and so I must’ve been attuned to something like this. I actually used my phone’s “selfie” cam to take this because of the angle. There wasn’t much need for post-processing, but I did use VSCO and Lightroom to pull out the colors a bit as well sharpen the lines to increase the negative space contrast. ”
Quatrième photo De la série
‘Quatrième photo De la série‘ by Romdilon
Which was your favourite?
Do you have a favourite from this weeks showcase? Let us know your thoughts on the featured photos in the comments below.
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