April 2026 Photo Contest Winners: Embracing Negative Space

[Dahlia Ambrose]

We’re happy to announce the winner of April’s competition, “Embracing Negative Space.”

For those who don’t know, the Light Stalking Monthly Photography Competition carries a $100 People’s Choice Award and a $100 Overall Winner Award. The People’s Choice Winner is selected by a vote of the community, whereas our guest judge selects the overall winner.

The “Embracing Negative Space” Photo Contest

Negative space in photography is a compositional tool that allows areas around the subject providing a sense of calm and emphasizing the subject’s importance. This is more like a minimal approach but the main focus is to maintain a balance in the frame while also driving attention to the subject. The negative space around the subject should not be distracting or chaotic and usually takes more than 50% of the entire frame.

Negative space can be used as a compositional tool in almost all genre of photography and some ways in which negative space can be embraced are by using negative space creatively in portraits to enhance the composition and focus on the subject, capturing minimalist landscapes, using negative space and subtle color palettes to convey vastness, utilising negative space in urban settings to isolate subjects and simplify compositions or experimenting with negative space in abstract photography, while focusing on composition and form.

The participants for April’s competition came up with creative ideas when embracing negative space in photography and there were a wide variety of submissions from landscapes and portraits to simple still life and nature photos. Every photo portrayed the use of negative space creatively and the photographer’s interpretation on using negative space in photography were unique.

When choosing the winning photos, we wanted to make sure that the decision process was based on a good interpretation of the theme, followed by other factors like light, composition, story, details, creative vision, etc. The results are entirely subjective and there are no losers in any competition as we all know.

Here are April’s Winners:

First Place: “Hollyhock bud” by Tersha @tersha

Hollyhock bud – Copyright Tersha

Tersha chose a very simple subject, a Hollyhock bud and used bright side light to illuminate the subject, throwing the background and the surrounding areas in darkness. This technique helps to reveal the beautiful colours and textures on the subject, preserving the details without blowing up any bright areas, while also eliminating any distractions in the frame.

Tersha’s composition is spot on with all the attention directed towards the bud with all the breathing space around used to contain the subject. The frame itself feels calm and provides a minimal atmosphere that will allow the viewer to scan the subject and all artistic features it portrays.

Congratulations Tersha on capturing this winning shot!

Second Place: “Superdome” by Glenn Pine @glpine

Superdome – Copyright Glenn Pine

Glenn submitted a photo of a famous architectural structure, “the superdome,” that has been shot from a unique perspective. This photo embraces negative space with the subject occupying almost 50% of the frame while the negative space looks equally appealing but does not distract or take away attention from the subject.

The soft light on the architectural structure reveals the gentle patterns and textures, giving the photo an abstract look. The composition using lines and curves while embracing negative space, and using the monochromatic edits to get the final look have made this image stand out with excellent results.

Congratulations Glenn!

Third Place: “Keeping A Watchful Eye” by Kevin E Flint @kevinflint

Keeping A Watchful Eye – Copyright Kevin E Flint

Kevin submitted a wildlife photo that embraces negative space while focusing all the attention on the subject, which is the Egret. Kevin has made use of the right light conditions to illuminate the subject perfectly while preserving the details in its white plumage. The focus is sharp on the bird’s eye which is very important when it comes to wildlife photography.

Besides, Kevin has used the right depth of field and focal length combination to blur the background enough to eliminate any bright spots or other distractions. Even though the background has some textures from the foliage, it is not distracting enough to take away the viewer’s attention. The orange coloured beak is a beautiful pop of colour that adds more interest to this photo.

Congratulations Kevin!

People’s Choice Award Winner

Our monthly photo contests also come with a People’s Choice Award. The winner of this part of the contest receives $100 worth of store credit on Light Stalking which they can spend as they please on our blueprints, drills, courses or Presets.

The most popular photo for April, voted by the contestants was “Superdome” by Glenn Pine @glpine which also won the second place in the competition. Congratulations Glenn!

Superdome – Copyright Glenn Pine

These are announced on the main blog as well!

cc: @admin-2

[Tersha]

Wow, such a lovely surprise! Thanks Dahlia, and congrats to Glen, @glpine, and Kevin, @kevinflint …. both really good photos.

[Stefanie Markham]

Congratulations everyone, this is lovely work.

[Retired Grunt]

All outstanding photos and creative use of negative space. Congrats to all the winners!!

[Author]

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