WildShots

Learning wildlife photography – The three B’s

Posted on 07. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell in Everything, Techniques, Wildlife photography

Learning wildlife photography – The three B’s - In an earlier article on my series on learning wildlife photography, I covered the three P’s of patience, patience and well, patience.

The three B’s are equally important and really contribute to making an image compelling and distinct.  And to summarize, the three B’s of wildlife photography are: background, background and background.

It is very easy for distracting elements to sneak into the backgrounds behind your subjects.  It is important to take close notice of how the background you are photographing an animal against can impact your images.  Unless you are creating environmental shots (and there is nothing wrong with those), you usually don’t want a lot of clutter in the background as it is distracting for the viewer.

Few things distract from an otherwise perfectly good short more than discovering that your beautiful subject has a tree or branch seemingly growing out of its head.  Many wildlife images are made at a relatively large aperture.  Using a large aperture allows the photographer to minimize the depth-of-field in an image.  The depth-of-field is a term that describes how much of the image behind the focus point and how much of the image in front of the focus point is actually in focus.  Shooting at a lens’s larger aperture setting (F2.8, F4, F5.6) allows for the opportunity for photographs with a wonderfully blurred background that allows the viewer to docus exclusively on the subject of the image.  Remember that the smaller the f-stop, the large the aperture opening which results in a shallower depth-of-field.  When your close to an animal with a long snout, care must be given to use enough depth-of-field to keep both the animal’s eyes and end of its nose in focus.

Getting those wonderfully blurred backgrounds depends on the seperation between your subject and whatever is in the background.  When your subject is directly against the background (like grass or reeds for instance) it isn’t possible to separate them from the background.

If you look through your viewfinder and aren’t happy with the background, remember that you can move.  I’ve met very few photographers who are either physically bolted in place or who have tripods that are bolted in place.  Obviously, it isn’t always practical to move.  And with wild animals, you need to be aware that moving positions can impact your subject’s behaviour.  But if an animal has a tree limb growing out of their body, it usually only requires a small shift in position to change how the image looks.

Whenever your setting up to shoot, think about the background.  Force yourself to ask yourself what the backgrounds going to look like after the shutter is released.  It is natural when someone is first beginning in wildlife photography to be excited about having a subject in their viewfinder.  That can be so exciting that there is little thought given to the background.  As you get more experience you’ll be able to calm down and concentrate on more of the elements.  And you may even find yourself remembering the three B’s.

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Tags: backbround, backgrounds, learn, learning, lens, lenses, Photography, three b's, tips tricks & techniques, Wildlife