After spending the morning stomping around in the brush, I thought I’d share a composition tip. Once you’ve taken the time to line up your shot, don’t be satisfied with it. When shooting animals, I find myself stop trying to improve the shot once I have the critter framed in my viewfinder. It’s a bad habit I constantly have to push myself to undo. It’s a rare photo that can’t be improved by a slight change of position. Take a look at my first frame of a great blue heron on the hunt:
Not bad, but I’m looking past the obvious fact that it’s exposed well and in focus. Look at the background. It has more than a few distracting sticks and highlights. To clean that up a bit, I could either try to throw it out of focus a little more with a wider aperture or change my camera position. In this instance, I moved two steps to the left and moved those sticks out of the frame. Here’s my second try:
As you can see, it’s quite a bit different and the background is much, much less distracting. So, next time you’re out with your camera and are ready to press your shutter, try this visual exercise:
- Move two steps to the right (from your original position), take a photo.
- Move two step to the left, take a photo.
- Back up two steps, move forward two steps, bend your knees (taking a shot each time, of course).
Don’t be happy with your first frame. I hope you see that changing your camera position even slightly can improve your photos.
Feel free to share your experiences doing my little exercise here…
THE THINGS I DO... 