What the heck is Minimalism anyway?

[Japaslavian]

Next week's assignment is Minimalism, and I was kindly by asked by another member to go a little in-depth into what minimalist photography is.
So here's what I came up with (*deep breath* here we go...).

In a nutshell, it is a photograph that demonstrates its element(s) in the most simple, and well... minimal way possible. Meaning, the least amount of color, texture, values, form, shapes, etc as possible. The subject of the photo is generally objective, so there is little or no question as to what we are looking at, but it is presented to us in a way to exemplify its existence. The background is very plain and not distracting, allowing the subject to stand out. Think "less is more."

When composing a minimal shot, there are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Centralize your subject. That's not to say you should always place the subject in the middle of the frame, but there shouldn't be anything else competing for attention.

2. Watch your background. Make sure it is as clean and straight forward as possible so that your subject shines through and there's no question as to what we should be looking at.

3. Zoom in, or zoom out. Depending on what you're shooting, you'll either want a tight crop, or a great deal of negative, background space showing.

~Zooming in will remove distracting things from the background and you can focus solely on just your subject. Use of shallow Depth of Field will help here.

~Zooming out will really draw the viewer into the subject. Just make sure your background is pretty even throughout. Wide depth of field generally works well here.

4. Geometry. If you're like me, you hate math, but when venturing out looking for subjects, look for geometric shapes, especially in places you would have never looked before. Such as the T-shape made from a handrail, or single stripe of paint on a wall. This works especially well when zooming in.

5. Chromatics. Look for either very even and neutral coloration, or highly contrasting colors (no more then 2 or 3 usually). B&W is very popular in minimalism because it eliminates competition between colors. Alternatively, having a white wall with a maybe drip of bright blue paint is going to stand out immensely, and you should keep the color. Again, just make sure there's no competition.

As one example, I posted this about a week ago:
Adventures in Minimalism

For me, the reason I feel the shot was successful was because the long exposure allowed the choppy water to become very smooth, allowing the posts to really stand out. Obviously, I chose the zoom out technique because it really forces you to look directly at the subject, because there's nothing else to look at. (And, I couldn't really walk out into the water to get a close-up ).
Imagine taking this yourself with a normal shutter speed. You would see all the waves, and the lines and texture those waves create really start to compete with the posts, which barely extend from the water to begin with.

There is a flickr group based on minimalist photos whose pool is full of examples that demonstrate what I'm trying to say.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/minimal/pool/

For more professional inspiration, Michel Rajkovic is one of my all-time favorite photographers who really encapsulates the modern minimalist style I love.
http://www.michelrajkovic.fr/

Seeing the style visually is what helped me the most when dabbling in Minimalism. So have a a look at those links and examine what makes each image so powerful, despite the lack of powerful subject matter.

Then, get out there and start shooting!
Hopefully this helped some of you, and gave you some ideas to start working with. I highly anticipate seeing all your work for the assignment, and hope I can go out again and participate too.

[Saralonde]

Excellent post. I'm sure this will help a lot of people who were scratching their heads about this.

[wulf]

I thought we had done minimalism as a theme here before but, digging back, it looks like it was in the days when DPS discussion took place via the Flickr group rather than in this purpose-designed forum. However, the old discussion (and related blog posting) will still be good sources of inspiration.

Wulf

[FocalFrenzy]

Japoslavian, thank you again for your explanation and examples.

[Nobie]

This will likely be my first assignment to enter. I was expecting something a bit more upfront, this is going to require more thought. Well, I better started on a concept!

[lynne-r]

Thank you for this explanation - new to photography in all aspects and very keen to learn. Thanks again Lynne

[RussHeath]

Japaslavian -- Really nice work with your minimalist photos. I love how you use the ND filter. I have been thinking about getting one to play with, and I was wondering:

Is this similar to the filter you are using? I noticed you tagged your photos on flickr with "ND400" and this seems similar.

If so, does that mean that for a 30 second exposure like you used in those photos, the equivalent exposure without the filter would be 1/15? Just checking my math to see if I have this figured out before I drop $60. Thanks in advance for the info and for sharing your lovely pictures with us.

[Japaslavian]

Originally Posted by newbie

Japaslavian -- Really nice work with your minimalist photos. I love how you use the ND filter. I have been thinking about getting one to play with, and I was wondering:

Is this similar to the filter you are using? I noticed you tagged your photos on flickr with "ND400" and this seems similar.

If so, does that mean that for a 30 second exposure like you used in those photos, the equivalent exposure without the filter would be 1/15? Just checking my math to see if I have this figured out before I drop $60. Thanks in advance for the info and for sharing your lovely pictures with us.

Yup, same filter. Mine is just 77mm as opposed to 52mm.
Off the top of my head, I think 1/15th is about the same, mind you though, that I could have probably pushed it a little further, but I don't have a remote and didn't want to move the camera, so I stayed at 30 seconds.

[NWatkajtys7]

This is opening all sorts of doors for me. This is quite intreaging. This clairifys a lot. Thanks for sharing Japaslavian. And great work!

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by Japaslavian

Yup, same filter. Mine is just 77mm as opposed to 52mm.
Off the top of my head, I think 1/15th is about the same, mind you though, that I could have probably pushed it a little further, but I don't have a remote and didn't want to move the camera, so I stayed at 30 seconds.

Thanks for the info! And again, excellent pictures you've taken with a minimalist style.