Northern Parula Warbler
captured D5 / 800mm / TC-1.25e
“Just how much background should I include?” This is a very common question that I receive all the time. It just came in as a possible podcast topic. Being a visual answer in my mind I was waiting until I had the same subject with three different backgrounds to answer it. My recent time at Magee Marsh with its waves of busy warblers provided the images I needed to explain how I look at the background and its role in telling the visual story.
In answering this question for myself, I first start with the gear I’m going to use. With birds in order to control the background, I use either the D5 or in this case, the D500 on the 800mm. That combination provides an incredibly narrow angle of view permitting easy tweaking of the background with slight movements to right or left, up or down with the gear. With that it comes down to your own style of photography and that’s really to the heart of the question of background.
There are three classic examples here of backgrounds for birds. No background, just a touch and fully occupied. As you can see, I like to use all three because each one tells a little different story based on the subject and that’s what photography is all about to me. At the same time, it’s the subject and the light on it that truly determines which background will work best. There are a number of things that takes the mind’s eye to the subject and then through the whole image. Knowing these and applying them really determines the background to me. With critters, their gesture, their attitude, their character really impacts the background and visa versa and which photo I’ll put out. In these three images, it’s the bottom image I love the most and it’s all because of the gesture in the Northern Parula Warbler. While it might have the “busiest” background but because of the light on the background and the subject, you can’t help but see that gesture. So rather than have a fixed background in my mind I have to have for a photograph, I work with what’s presented by the subject at the time of the click. I don’t know if that answers folk’s question but that’s how I visually think about how much background.