Negative Space in Portrait

[ZWincik]

So I am here to ask for opinions on the negative space in this image. I have been told countless times that portraits need to be shot vertically and that the negative space on the right side of this image isn't good for a portrait. I understand that it might distract the viewer from the subject but I personally think it works fine.

Any thoughts and opinions would be much appreciated.

[wulf]

I would suggest that it is a less satistfactory result than, say, this one (another thread I recently happened to look at). Your picture has an empty space, which would work if you had some text to overlay there. The other shot has the model to one side but the space is used so that she reaches her arm across; still lots of space but more to tie the two sides together.

Wulf

ps. it would also be useful if you could tell us a bit more about the camera, lens and settings used although that's not absolutely essential if you just want to discuss composition (although, in that case, we could move the thread to a better location)

[Benji]

Usually in a portrait if there is negative space there should be a reason for it to be there (which Wulf alluded to above.) To have negative space just for the sake of having negative space looks to most people, I believe, like the person making the capture made a mistake.

Somewhere a long time ago an internet "expert" read that the rules of thirds was a great compositional aid in photography including portraiture, so he took that to mean that centered is boring and made proclamation that if the subject is off centered it will be more interesting. This idea was picked up by other "experts" and soon it became gospel. The rule of thirds is used in portraiture but usually it means placing the eyes of the subject 1/3rd of the way down from the top. The subject's face can be placed off center at the 1/3rd intersection, but as I mentioned above there should be a reason to have it positioned there as in my image below.

Benji

[ZWincik]

Thanks for the input guys! I appreciate it!