Composition is important. It changes the way people read your images, and it can make or break a photograph. There are a number of rules to composition – the ‘Rule of Thirds’, the ‘Golden ratio’, the ‘for the love of god don’t put your subject in the dead centre of the frame unless there’s a valid reason for it’. And then there’s breaking those rules from time to time to catch people’s attention.

In bird photography, it’s often difficult to get exactly the composition you want in-camera. While perfection is what we all strive for, it is often the case that an image needs a bit shaved off the sides to make it how we saw it in our minds. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we can be so possessed with getting close to our subject that we neglect to include a bit of breathing room in the frame, or even amputate various appendages. Here’s an example.This is an adorable photo. No denying that. But it feels cramped, because the cygnet is sitting right at the bottom of the frame. Now unfortunately, this awkward framing is the result of me neglecting to leave enough room in the bottom of the frame, so not even strategic cropping can save this image.

I’ve caught myself making this mistake a lot, so I’ve made a conscious effort to give my subjects a bit of breathing room.

By opening up the composition we get a sense of scale, placing the bird in the environment allows us to see how big (or small) it is, and gives it room to move. Of course it’s not actually going to move in a still photograph (unless you’re a wizard), but giving it the room to lends more energy to the photograph. Now, this image was cropped out of a slightly larger one, to remove a bit of distracting shadow in the foreground, but the essence of the composition was a conscious decision at the time of taking.

So:

• Think about the composition of your photographs, even if you can’t get it 100% in camera.
• It’s okay to crop your images to get rid of unnecessary space if you need to, but don’t rely on it to get ‘closer’ to the bird!
• Make sure there’s enough room around your subject so you don’t unconsciously chop off bits of them, or make the framing cramped and awkward.

That’s it for this week’s bird photography tips! Anything you think I’ve missed? Drop a comment below.