
What is inverted subject composition?
I made the term up to describe what I was trying to achieve in the photo above. Here’s what makes up the idea:
- Light is on the outside portions of the photo
- Focus is on the outside portions of the photo
- Darkness in center of photo
- Bokeh mostly in center of photo
What is the purpose of this?
This has a couple of applications I can think of:
- The negative space in this circumstance is the draw – if you want to make reference to mystery or anything that is focussed on the unknown, this makes what you can’t see the item of interest.
- Practically speaking this is not a bad thing to frame typeset against, with the type being in the middle in a column. Lack of focus in the middle provides a smooth unobtrusive backdrop to press details of type against, and darkness in the middle means you can use white type for added punch – this would be killer in a back-lit display, such as what you see on bus stops and airport ceiling-to-floor campaigns, or a website.
That’s all I can think of right now. It is odd that I am a designer but I do not have a design category on this website. Time to change that..





















