My main goal as a photographer is to make images with artistic intent. By this I don’t mean that there is a deep meaning behind each of my photographs - in fact, that is rarely, if ever the case. But I do want my images to be perceived as carefully constructed as opposed to the result of simply pointing my camera at an event unfolding in front of me. This to me is essentially what separates files that sit on a hard drive, from those that are featured in my portfolio. When the many elements necessary to create a successful wildlife image converge, this is rarely by happenstance, but is rather the result of significant forethought.
With this in mind, if we consider the vast majority of photographs, particularly those of wildlife, the foundation of what makes or breaks their success, is not always the subject itself, but what surrounds it. One can be gifted an encounter with the rarest, most beautiful of species in plain sight, but if what lies beyond is a mess of convoluted elements, your photo will appear as a snapshot rather than a wall-hanger.
Like most other aspects of photography, the main concept to understand is that details matter. Becoming a detail-oriented photographer requires a keen, attentive eye. Building an awareness and training your artistic eye of the things to look out for the the field is the first step. Guiding and teaching several dozen workshop participants per year gives me the unique opportunity to observe the habits of photographers and how these play into the success of their images. Unsurprisingly, what’s apparent is that the success of one’s images relies entirely upon how fastidious they choose to be in the field. Some of the concepts deserving of consideration seem to be more intuitive, whereas others may not come as naturally and are therefore neglected.
When I think about the essence of what creates a successful background in a wildlife image, whether shooting a tight portrait or a more contextual habitat image, I find it’s very important to isolate your subject to some degree. This ensures it won’t be lost within the photograph, overwhelmed by its surroundings. This can be achieved in a number of different ways. Sometimes what creates this isolation is simply the nature of the situation you’re presented with. Perhaps the colour of your subject contrasts with the surrounding area, or the lighting causes it to stand out against the background. These are elements we don’t typically have control over in the moment. There are however, several ways we can control what our camera sees, to better suit our intended aesthetic. Below we’ll explore some of the most important ideas, both technical and artistic, that work towards improving your backgrounds, and ultimately, your photographs…
1. Put Distance Between Your Subject and Background
Simply put, the farther beyond your subject the background lies, the smoother the background will be rendered in your image. If your background is too close, an undesirable amount of detail and texture will be seen; distracting from your subject.
When approaching your subject, it’s important to be consciously thinking about this. Scan the landscape to seek out the best possible option, keeping in mind sometimes this is just a very narrow window. If by shifting a metre or two in one direction can remedy the issue by yielding a more distant background, it will almost certainly be worth the extra attention.
By shooting from a very low angle, just above the surface of the water, my background was comprised of distant water and shoreline.
Had I been shooting from a standing position, my background would’ve been the water and floating vegetation immediately behind this Sora.
Moving to and from a clay lick in the Peruvian Amazon, the flight paths of Red-and-Green Macaws often brought them too close to the escarpment beyond to render pleasing backgrounds. To better isolate the birds, I used a slow shutter speed and a panning motion. This retained sharpness on the bird, while blurring the background.
Sometimes when presented with challenging circumstances, remember to explore your creativity to problem solve.
2. Seek Out Uniformity
In addition to keeping distance between our subject and background, to create better isolation of our subjects, it’s generally preferred to seek out backgrounds free of heavy contrast. Even when out of focus, scenes with harsh, dappled lighting, contrasting tones and pronounced patterns and textures will often translate into hard edges in our backgrounds, appearing too cluttered. These will disrupt the smooth look we’re hoping for and distract from our subject.
If presented with a forested background for example, take note of things like obtrusive tree trunks, highlights between patches of foliage. If you can’t fully eliminate them, try to compose your image so they don’t intrude upon your subject.
When is this particularly important?
If you encounter a situation where you aren’t able to achieve an adequately distant background, extra care needs to be taken to eliminate any particularly distracting areas.
Also consider that when working with prime super-telephoto lenses (a 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 for example), photographers are granted more leniency in this regard. They beautifully dissolve background elements into a pleasing blur. On the contrary, if working with zoom lenses or shorter focal lengths in general, extra care is necessary as the blurring effect on the background - AKA “bokeh” - will be less pronounced.
Lining up with a small distraction free area of forest beyond this nest of Great Grey Owls created a smooth, uniform background, allowing the subjects to pop.
3. Use a Longer Lens OR Get Closer
Tying into the previous points - we now know that the longer the lens, the more compressed the scene becomes, thus rendering smoother surroundings. For wildlife photographers, this is generally beneficial, as it more effectively removes unwanted detail from our background and foreground. So, the same scene shot with a 600mm lens, will look smoother than that of a 500mm lens. Keep this in mind if you have the choice between which lens to use, or you have a zoom lens that spans a range of focal lengths.
Getting closer to your subject will have the same effect. This is of course a generalization, but something to keep in mind when out in the field is, try to keep your background at least as far away from your subject as you are to it. For example…. Photographer < —10m— > Subject < —10m or more— > Background. As you approach your subject - effectively bringing the plane of focus closer to your camera - your background will dissolve more and more.
With that said, please consider that getting closer to your subject may not be in its best interest. Be mindful of your impact.
Using a 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter enabled me to close in on this tiny Pacific Wren.
The long focal length sufficiently blurred the fern beyond to alleviate distraction yet add a touch of habitat.
4. Use a Larger Aperture
Just like using a longer lens - if you select a larger aperture (a lower number - ex: f/4 or f/5.6), the shallower the depth-of-field becomes. So long as it doesn’t compromise the sharpness of your subject too heavily, a larger aperture is generally advised to help smooth out any unwanted detail in front of, or beyond your subject. This helps to isolate and place greater emphasis on it.
Keep in mind however, this isn’t always necessary. If you’re very close to your subject and the background is very far away, you may find that even when using a very small aperture to render sharp detail throughout your entire subject, your background may still be rendered smoothly. Experimentation is key.
An aperture of f/2.8 allowed not only a faster shutter speed in very low light, it beautifully dissolved the background just beyond this Canada Warbler, found in the cloud forest of Ecuador.
5. Eliminate Distractions
When the above is mentioned in the world of digital photography, many photographers would likely assume this refers to “cleaning up” an image during post processing. In fact, a very common phrase I hear when guiding is “Oh, I’ll just fix that in Photoshop”. Photography and digital art are of course personal pursuits which can be approached in a variety of different ways. How an individual goes about approaching this much discussed topic is not for me or anyone else to decide. With that said, as someone who chooses not to clone or remove anything during post processing, I often encounter situations where I just can’t quite understood this logic.
The analogy I like to use is this…
If while driving your car, you could either make a quick 3 point turn, resulting in a dinged up bumper and scratched paint, OR, make a 5 point turn and come away unscathed, which would you choose? A very small investment of time and effort can mean all the difference. The work will have to be done one way or another - either in the field or on the computer. Personally, I’d rather have a better RAW file to work with. Plus, photographs that don’t require doctoring in the form of cloning, adding canvas, etc. are eligible for entry into photography competitions.
This tip is more of an amalgamation of the previous four, as each of the discussed techniques can be used in combination to achieve distraction-free images. Though having the know-how to mitigate potential issues utilizing your equipment choices and camera controls is important, identifying and avoiding them in the first place is by far the more useful and important skill to develop.
A quick glance around the periphery of your photograph can go a long way. Lurking in the fringe, or even in plain sight, unwanted elements can severely detract from your image, but they’re often easily avoided by shifting one’s position even very subtly. An out of focus branch concealing the tail of your subject, a patch of bright sky filtering through the forest canopy beyond, a sign post befouling an otherwise natural landscape - distractions can come in many forms.
Simply put, it’s all about where you stand. Get into the habit of planting your tripod down with intention. Don’t select your spot out of convenience; select it after making a conscious effort to evaluate the quality of your background, considering any would-be obstructions in the foreground, and navigating around any potential distracting elements that may interfere with your subject. Finding the sweet spot is often the result of very small tweaks in positioning. It’s often a game of inches. What at first will likely seem tedious will eventually become second nature. The key is to be present, be attentive, and don’t become so fixated on your subject that everything that surrounds it is neglected.
6. Consider Creative Framing Opportunities
The points discussed above have largely been focused around simplifying by eliminating extraneous elements from your images. As a rule, less is more. I believe it’s important to learn how to create a “clean” wildlife image before trying to introduce too many additional compositional elements into your frame. More often than not, nature tends to be quite chaotic and unmanicured, requiring a special situation to incorporate an animal’s surroundings successfully.
With that said, elevating one’s images to the next level often comes in the form of small details that can separate you from others and add variety to your portfolio. There are only so many portraits with perfectly diffused backgrounds one can look at before a collection can seem too uniform and unexciting. Learning to read the landscape, knowing what will and will not work, depending upon lighting conditions and the gear you have on hand is a challenging but very exciting undertaking!
There isn’t a secret recipe to success when approaching this. It takes an open mind, time in the field testing out any ideas you may have, and a critical eye to assess your results. When evaluating an image, if it was a successful attempt, try to discern what gives it that immediate wow factor. Is it the way that arcing branch leads the viewer right to your subject, or how the soft backlighting illuminated the grasses beyond your subject, or how a small window in the foliage provided a natural vignette? If your attempt wasn’t so successful, don’t delete it and move on. What can be learned? Would using a wider lens have helped include additional elements to help balance the composition? Would shooting from a lower perspective next time help you achieve the aesthetic you’re after?
Rather than adding to our images, background highlights tend to be irritants. In this case however, the lower contrast, glowing golden highlights that presented themselves beyond this Northern Pygmy-Owl at sunset added a critical aesthetic element to this image.
Careful positioning and the use of a very wide aperture rendered them as a photogenic framing as opposed to a distraction.
Careful positioning provided separation between this Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and the surrounding rocks.
To give more emphasis to its impressive bill, I placed it as to overlap with the lighter-coloured, frothy water.
In this case, it was important to position myself as to frame the Black Bear cub, without the branches covering its face.
During such a fleeting moment, it can often be important to act quickly as if you second guess yourself, the moment will be gone.