Minimalist Photography

Minimalism is one of the most popular forms of photography today, but it can still be a challenging form to master.

We’ve got a couple of tricks and tips to help you take better minimalist images:

• Keep it simple: Less is more when it comes to minimalist photography, as you might expect. If you can, start out by placing only your subject in frame and then slowly start adding props and other elements to the frame until you’re happy. You might find this difficult at first, but over time it will help you to build your compositional skills.
• Use colour: Colour is an excellent tool to introduce contrast into your image. Choosing a subject with a bold, contrasting colour to the other elements in the frame will help to draw the viewers’ eye.
• Backgrounds: As a good starting point, choose plain backgrounds that don’t distract from the subject. If you’re looking to make your backgrounds more visually interesting, consider using different textures to help add more variety. Don’t go overboard here though, as you can quickly turn a textured background into the focus of the image.
• Patterns: In minimalist photography, where there are fewer subjects and props than you might find in usual photography, you can focus more on patterns, lines, and shapes. With fewer distractions in-frame, you can focus more on subtle lines and repeating patterns in your frame. A good starting place is to look at power lines against the sky or the line of the horizon. Spend time on these simple subjects to really practice your composition.
• Negative space: Leaving lots of empty space in the frame is crucial in minimalist photography as it allows the subject to stand out in isolation. You can use natural elements such as fog, clouds, or water as a backdrop in outside images.

The most important thing to keep in mind with minimalist photography is to always keep your eyes open and be on the lookout for opportunities. In such a busy world, you often find striking minimal images find you when you least expect it, so training your eye to pick these out will really help you.

If you want to get inspired to head out and take some minimal images, take a look at some of our example images. Pay attention to the things we talked about above and see how the different points were incorporated into the images and then get out there and capture some images of your own!