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Luminar Neo - My First Impressions

Mystical Woods - move mouse over  for an before / after     In December of last year I was asked whether I'd like to take a look and try out the photo edit software Luminar Neo. So I was provided with the program and the extensions pack. At the moment there are seven extensions available, I installed four of them that I thought could be useful in my workflow. These are Noiseless Ai, Upscale Ai, Supersharp Ai and Magic Light Ai.  Until I was asked to try Luminar Neo, I had not heard of the program, but the opportunity to partner with Skylum and make some additional money convinced me to take a look. That means: This text contains affiliate links. What is Luminar Neo? Skylum's Luminar Neo is a photo editing tool that makes editing your photos quite simple. Many of its features are enhanced by artificial intelligence that lead to sometimes stunning results and are intuitive and easy to use. LUMINAR NEO - special offer until 28 February 2023 Lightroom and Photoshop plugin I almo

Texturizing nEgative SpAce

Hello,
I am finally back with a new post about negative space and what opportunities it offers when it comes to using textures.
This term had no meaning to me until eventually some people used it in their comments when responding to pictures I posted on Flickr.
I had only a vague idea about its meaning, but a few weeks ago I began searching for this term and was stunned how many interesting articles and texts there are on this compositional concept.

Move your mouse over the pictures to see the before and after images!


Tri-Angle
    In the above shot the texture use in the fog section is echoing the trees twigs.



What does Negative Space mean?

It is not limited to photography but does apply to art in general. 
Wikipedia defines it as " the space around and between the subject (s) of an image". 
I don't want to delve into this concept too deeply, if you search for it, you will find heaps of articles on this topic.
In general you can either use this space to draw attention to the subject of your image or you can make the negative space itself the "real" subject of your work.
For instance you can use lines through the space or colour gradients to draw attention to the focus of your picture.

However you use it is finally left to your creativity and imagination.

I find negative space interesting with respect to the composition & design of empty spaces in my photos, such as fog covered landscapes, skies, beaches and so on.

The use of negative space is not limited to landscape shots, but can also be found in close-ups and macros.

Use of textures & negative space

The use of textures can make the negative space more interesting and it ideally helps to bring out the main subject as well.

In this close-up of a rose-hip I wanted to have a painerly look.

Fruit of Winter


A clever and creative use of the negative space and a well chosen texture can really help to transport emotions and and messages in your work.

Here are some additional examples of textured negative spaces:

I think the tones and the structures of the sky made this more interesting and added much to the gloomy atmosphere the bad weather and fog provided.

Even a dull day has its charm

This beach scene became more balanced with the application of textures, esp. in the sky.

One of the 1st

   
Bizarre Trees


I hope this post gives you an idea about the possibilities textures offer to enhance & design negative space . I think adding textures to these parts of an image really can make the pictures special and more interesting.

Please consider visiting my build-your-own-texture-pack gallery .
Thank you very much!!

Comments

  1. Dirk, your blog is great and so well done. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your textures. Beautiful work!

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