Shooting birds is different….when we shoot a person, for example, we choose the lens we want, then stand however far from the subject we have to be,
to get the composition we’re after.
With birds, we often put our longest lens on, get as close as we can, but THEN, we still feel like we’re not close enough so we…………………..crop. We crop the image.
Makes perfect sense, of course, we’re not close enough, we have to crop. BUT….there are some dangers to cropping bird pictures, especially if it results in the unique result
I call “bird cropping.”
That’s where we crop the loving bejesus out of it, until all you have left is the BIRD.
A lot of us will sacrifice image quality just to get close.
Another risk is in your rush to get CLOSE, you’ll crop away ENVIRONMENT.
Birds don’t exist in a vacuum….they live in trees, forests, marshes and against INTERESTING skies… and great photographs often require context.
If we strip the scene of composition, instead of using frames and leading lines and echoes and complimentary colors and secondary subjects, etc…….we swap all of that great, compositional yumminess for………………….well………………close.
It’s “bird cropping.”
That’s where you’re so intent on getting close to the bird, you even crop right past
a GOOD aspect ratio and create just any shape as close to the bird as you can get.
You create a bird-shaped image.
Not only do you lose an attractive aspect ratio…you put the bird in a box…
…you’ve stripped everything, environment, context, composition…
…and often image quality.
Just to get close.
I’m not saying this is OBJECTIVELY wrong (but in my OPINION it IS a bad idea) but I am saying it’s worth auditing yourself…asking yourself
“AM I bird cropping??”
And honestly asking yourself if getting CLOSE is more important than all those other things that we normally use to make
great……………….overall…………..images.
I use RULES for everything…..and I might sometimes bend one,
but those guiderails keep me from taking GREAT images,
or even just GOOD images, and turning them into soft, noisy,
birds-trapped-in-a-box with no composition or environment.
What I do…….is create images for an INTENDED SIZE. And I view them at the INTENDED SIZE
If I want an image to be viewed at 24×16″ that’s the size and SHAPE I view it
to decide if I’ve done a good job.
Then I ask myself:
“Have I kept environment, does the subject live in a WORLD?”
“Do I have COMPOSITION, have I used good tools of composition?”
“Have I made the bird look absurdly big? Most birds are small.”
“Am I using a good ASPECT RATIO? Or did I just crop in as tight as I could.”
“Did I put a bird in a BOX? Or does it have room to move?”
“And what is the PURE IMAGE QUALITY at this size……is it SHARP…..noise free?”
