BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND
The background is a combination of what nature gives you, how you compose it, the focal length, and the aperture.
The background plays a big role in a nature photo, just as light does. If you’re out photographing for a couple of days, you will probably get material that is 90 percent okay, but to win the last 10 percent is much more difficult. It’s not enough to have captivating action, perfect light, and interesting perspective; a spot-on photograph requires a perfect background. You need to have figured out the best angle and direction to get a good background before you aim your lens.
The background can bring extra information to the image, something that relates directly to the main subject, such as another bird or a detail that reveals something about the subject’s habitat. These extra elements should be soft and out of focus so they don’t steal attention from the main subject, yet they should be sharp enough to convey information to the viewer.
Sometimes it’s good to stop down far enough to capture every detail sharply in the background to reveal the bird’s environment. I aim to include the background in the image whenever it’s especially beautiful or when there are so many birds that the world around the main subject adds interest to the image. To get this you need a large depth of field. This requires a wider lens, which leads to a remarkably shorter shooting distance than a telephoto lens. Creating a good composition gets even more difficult because you now need to control all the details in the background, not just the main subject.
Telephoto Lenses Blend Background Elements into a Uniform Backdrop
One option is to have one color in the background, or a mixture of the colors that nature gives you. Telephoto lenses have a shallow depth of field, and if you can find an even color combination to serve as your background, and keep an adequate distance that lets the colors blend together, it’s easy to create uniform backgrounds. What is not so easy is to find a big enough area in the field that does not have great contrast between shapes, light, or colors, such as the line between sky and ground, or water and reeds.
Mallard brood with parent (Anas platyrhynchos). Left outside the depth of field, the blurred parent provides additional information in the image but lets the young claim the main stage.
Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 500mm f/4.0, 1/1600 second, f/5.0, ISO 1600, Gitzo tripod, Manfrotto 501 video head, blind. Parainen, Finland, May 2009.
Great Egrets fishing (Ardea alba). Neither the number of birds nor their environment is the main theme in this image, but both play a valuable role in creating the general atmosphere.
Nikon D300, Tokina 10–17mm f/3.5–4.5, 1/50 second, 16mm, f/11.0, ISO 400, two Nikon SB-800 flashes, manual focus, remote control head, blind. Pusztaszer, Hungary, June 2009.
Common Chiffchaff at a drinking pool (Phylloscopus collybita). A sand dune in the background is blurred and blends in to a completely harmonious background, allowing the small bees to be clearly projected against it.
Nikon D300, 300mm f/2.8, 1/1250 second, f/5.6, ISO 640, manual focus, Gitzo tripod and video head, blind. Pusztaszer, Hungary, May 2008.
A Green-crowned Brilliant and a snake (Heliodoxa jacula). The almost homogeneous background has nuances that hint at the animals’ habitat but does not steal from the main attraction.
Nikon D300, 300mm f/2.8, 1/100 second, f/4.0, ISO 200, Canon Speedlite 550EX and 540EZ flashes, manual focus, Gitzo tripod and video head, blind. Costa Rica, February 2009.
Forests and hillsides are good backgrounds, but they aren’t always available. If your background is less than ideal, you can try photographing from a higher angle. The ground then becomes your background. Try to attract the bird to a higher level, otherwise you won’t have enough distance between your subject and your background; the background should be twice the distance between the subject and the lens, preferably even more.
With a few exceptions, the greater the distance to your background, the better the result. One exception is precipitation. When you have snowfall and rain, you should photograph against a dark background and keep the distance at less than 100 m (328 ft). When the distance is greater, there is more precipitation between the subject and the background, which causes the drops or flakes to merge into a uniform, pale mass instead of standing out individually.
What should you do if the background is too close? The best way to blur the background is to find an angle where you have three to four times more light on the subject than on the background, which becomes blurred and doesn’t attract the viewer’s eye when it is underexposed. A general rule for sunny weather is to keep the background in the shade and the subject in sunlight. If that’s not possible, a blue sky is a good uniform background in almost all light conditions and with every focal length.
European Turtle-Doves mating (Streptopelia turtur). When the light intensity varies greatly between the subject and the background, even the most restless background becomes a harmonious backdrop.
Nikon D200, 300mm f/2.8, 1/1000 second, f/2.8, ISO 400, manual focus, Gitzo tripod and video head, blind. Pusztaszer, Hungary, May 2006.
When you want to bring out details in the background, use a wide lens and stop down. When you are photographing with a telephoto lens, use the biggest possible aperture to blur the background into a uniform color. Stopping down even just one f-stop with a telephoto lens has a surprisingly big impact on the amount of information in the background.
Foreground
Do not overlook the foreground. You can create exciting effects in your image by using the elements between your camera and the subject. For example, if a bird is partially concealed behind a rock or a snowbank, include the obstructing element in your image. This way it doesn’t truncate your subject, and the viewer can see why only part of the bird is visible.
The distance between the element in the foreground and your camera should be about half of your distance to the subject. If it’s less, the element is too sharply focused and steals the attention; if it’s more, the connection between the element and the subject can be lost.
You might think that composing a good background and an interesting foreground is not that difficult, but in reality, getting them right requires time, consideration, and planning. Well-composed backgrounds and foregrounds will reward your efforts many times over, so it’s smart to put effort into them.
A Great Egret preening (Ardea alba). Softly blurred snow ties the separate elements together, and the result is a balanced image.
Canon 300D, Nikon 300mm f/2.8, 1/1600 second, f/5.6, ISO 200, manual focus, self-made tripod, Gitzo video head, blind. Pusztaszer, Hungary, March 2005.