Composition for Birders

Prairie Warbler

In my last post here on Birding is Fun! I described four different types of bird photography that might be useful for a birder: identification, documentation, interpretation, and artistic expression.  I don't shy away from any of these types of photography, but my hope is always to come home with photos that have artistic value--photos I could hang on my wall and be proud of. Attention to composition is one of the best ways to get a documentary photo to double as a form of artistic expression.

SEEing

American Goldfinch

I like to think of composition as learning to SEE: Simply, Emphasize, Exclude.  Learn to simplify your composition by emphasizing what's important to you and excluding everything else. Whenever you take a picture, it's good to ask yourself: what am I trying to show?  What am I interested in?  Do what you can to emphasize that and exclude everything that would distract from it. Just this morning I found the above American Goldfinch. When I first found it, it was in a tree surrounded by small branches.  I waited for it to move around in the tree, and it eventually perched on a branch with a nice, clean background.  It's a "bird on a stick" photo, but the composition is simple.  You know what I want to emphasize, and I've done my best to exclude everything that would detract from it.

Limpkin with Chick

It's not always possible to get a completely blurry background, but that's not always bad.  Sometimes the background behind your subject can be blurred enough that it does not distract much from the interest you have in your subject. There was no way to completely blur the background of the Limpkin photo above, but I blurred it as much as I could to help the Limpkin stand out.  And sometimes the background can complement the subject by adding a sense of the bird's environment. In the photo below, I liked the way the Bay-breasted Warbler perched nestled in the tree--for me the tree adds to my enjoyment of the photo.

Bay-breasted Warbler

And sometimes your interest may not be as much in the bird as it is in its behavior.  I was far enough away from the Long-billed Curlew below to include the whole bird, but my interest was in the food it had in its bill. I decided the only way to emphasize that was to crop away most of the bird's body so that you could see what it had in its bill.

Long-billed curlew

Rule of Thirds

Great Horned Owls

To me the only real "rule" in composition is SEEing. Everything else is a guideline that is usually helpful, even if the guideline doesn't always apply.  The "rule of thirds" is that kind of rule.  Imagine drawing a tic-tac-toe grid on your viewfinder or preview screen (some cameras will even let you see it if you turn the option on).  The rule of thirds states that your composition will usually seem more pleasing if you place what interests you on a line or intersection of the tic-tac-toe grid. It doesn't have to be exact, but the grid can help you avoid centered (or bulls-eyed) compositions. My interest in the image above was in the owl that was facing me, so I placed his face near the intersection of the lines tic-tac-toe grid.

Marbled Godwit

And another helpful rule of thumb.  When you place the bird on the "rule of thirds," choose the side that allows the bird to look into the frame. In the above shot of the Marbled Godwit, I placed the Godwit on the left hand side of the frame so that it would have room to move toward the right.  If I had composed it facing out of the frame, it may seem like its doing all it can to get out of my crappy picture.

Lines and Curves

American Avocets in a "Curve"

Lines and curves can make wonderful compositional aids, especially if you realize that they do not have to be actual lines or curves.  Implied lines and curves can be just as helpful as actual ones.  They produce repeating patterns that can be very interesting and pleasing.

American Avocets

Lesser Scaup in a Curve

Least Tern with Posts making a Diagonal Line

Reflections

Tricolored Heron

I'm a sucker for a photo of a bird with reflections, and they make reflections of all kinds.  Sometimes they're perfect and pristine; at other times they are wavy and distorted. It's all good.

Roseate Spoonbills"

Arrangement

Forster's Tern with Background Elements

Often you do not want the bird to be all by itself.  You may want to include some of the other birds keeping your subject company.  Or you may want to include elements of the bird's surroundings.  When you do, you can be intentional about how you arrange these elements to make a pleasing composition.  Where you stand, or whether you stand or sit or lay on the ground can all impact your composition and the arrangement of the elements of your image.

American Coots

Eye Level

Sanderling

If at all possible photograph your subjects as close to eye level as possible.  Crouch down on your knees or even your belly if you can.  But the more you can get on the level of the bird, the more intimate your portrait will seem.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Framing and Cropping

Bachman's Sparrow

Since birds often stay far away and they don't make 2000mm lenses for all of us to buy, we have to make due with cropping.  When I know I'm going to be cropping an image significantly, I frequently will put the subject dead in the center of the frame.  Then I'll frame my shot by cropping the image in my computer.  This lets me use the center focusing point on my camera, and it gives me options for framing in the computer.  Do I want the bird on the left side of the frame or the right? Near the top or near the bottom?  I can decide on one (or two or three) of these options when I'm sitting at my computer. In these two Bachman's Sparrow images, I put the sparrow dead center in the frame and the cropped each photo match the position of the sparrows head, so that the sparrow would always be looking into the frame.

Bachman's Sparrow

Sometimes this isn't an option.  The Great Blue Heron below was so close I had to back up to get all him in the frame.  So I had to make sure I the heron framed as I wanted it because I wouldn't have the option of changing it later.

Great Blue Heron

These simple concepts to keep in mind can enhance any photograph. Have fun with the rules and enjoy them.  Use them or break them at will.  But knowing them can help you think about your compositions in all your bird photography