The Art of Composition part 12
Thus far, in this series on the Art of Composition, we have focused on what I think of as the foundation of composition in wildlife photography. Absent has been any discussion of the Rule of Thirds, Golden Means, Center Lines, etc. All of these are important. All of these play a crucial role in composition. But unfortunately, such topics tend to stand as the alpha and the omega of any discussion on composition and how it relates to nature photography.
These so-called compositional rules and concepts play a tremendous role in wildlife photography, but their application is so incredibly different than it is with, say, landscape photography.
With landscape photography, we can methodically piece together a composition as we see it in our mind’s eye and imagination. Wildlife photography, as you already know, is very different. In our peculiar genre of photography, things happen fast. Animals can often be skittish. Sometimes they are already moving at speeds in excess of 100mph, as is the case with some species of birds. And everything is changing rapidly.
It's for this reason that our approach to composition will inevitably be different from just about any other type of photography.
But please do not mistake my intention here. Every compositional vocabulary word you have ever heard of plays their parts in our wildlife photographs. But unlike other genre of photography, we must think and see and begin in a very different place. And this why our series of discussions has thus far focused on Depth of Field and Angle of View.
These are the two compositional tools we all have access to no matter what.
It doesn’t matter if we are photographing a bobcat or a baboon, a red-billed tropicbird or a reticulated python. Depth of field and angle of view are what we can control in all situations, with all species, with all types of geographies, habitats, climates, and lighting conditions. It’s what we can control when we don’t have time to figure out the rest. It’s what we can control when we have but one chance, one brief moment in time, to capture the magic before us.
This is why I chose to begin here, in this place, with the fundamentals that you have immediate access to without understanding the more complex and nuanced concepts that are to come.
Controlling Depth of Field, as you have now seen, is so much more than simply using your largest aperture. DOF is also about focal length. And most importantly, even more so than f/stops, it’s about distance: your distance from the subject, and your subject’s distance from the background.
When we add angle of view to this equation, we take the whole thing one step further.
Simply getting down to eye level, or lower, with our subject breaks up the picture space. It allows us to easily pull together three dimensions, or at least the illusion of it, in the form of a foreground, middle ground, and background. And it allows us to more easily control the depth of field in a photograph by isolating our subject from those other “dimensions.”
If you can handle these two concepts, both depth of field and angle of view, then you can create compelling compositions in all situations as a wildlife photographer.
But now that we have established this, it’s time for us to move on and build upon it. And in the articles that will follow this one, I will begin diving into what we call the Elements of Design.
The Elements of Design is a term that was first coined by the American artist, Arthur Wesley Dow in his 1899 book titled Composition. So influential was the book that it was eventually published in twenty editions. Even today, many professional artists keep a copy of this book in their libraries (present company included).
The book that started it all
One of the many “editions” Arthur Wesley Dow’s book Composition has gone through, this is an indispensable workbook that has been studied by countless art students across the English speaking world for more than a century.. If you purchase this book, just be prepared for the flowery language of a hundred years ago!
Dow, who was heavily influenced by Japanese art theory, originally identified three so-called elements he felt were important to a successful design: line, color, and Notan. Until Dow, art education was largely centered around copying the works of “masters,” to get a feel for how and why things worked out. With Dow’s three elements of design, he was attempting to codify the foundations of all good visual art. And this would change the way artists learned art forever.
Since Dow’s seminal work on composition, the elements of design have grown and changed. They have been adapted to various forms of visual art as artists began to realize there were nuances to their medium of choice. Despite the tweaks and changes over the last century and a quarter, however, one thing is consistent across all genera of art: the elements of design is where all good art begins.
Once again, we break away from tradition by even discussing such concepts in regard to wildlife photography. This is both unfortunate and ironic, given the importance of these concepts in visual art. But I think this is likely because most people who “get into” wildlife photography have no formal training in art and many never see themselves as artists. Most just have a deep love of nature and wildlife and end up buying big lenses and cameras to tote around on their adventures in the woods. As such, wildlife photography has become a circle of people who just kind of “figure it out.”
There is nothing wrong with this, of course. I think we all have a soft spot in our heart for the self-made human. And there is always the assumption that someone “just is or is not” an artist in our modern world, as if it’s an inborn talent and the best ones must have a mystical bat phone connected to the universe for inspiration and insight. But as with all forms of self-education, in my humble opinion, there are inevitably gaps and holes, assumptions, and misunderstandings in ones understanding. And often, our education ends once we begin to think our knowledge is “good enough,” e.g. all that self-education begins to bear fruit.
This, I will argue until I’m blue in the face, is why discussions on composition never seem to move past some truly rudimentary concepts in wildlife photography such as don’t center your subject or arrange everything like tick-tack-toe board. There are, of course, a million reasons to ignore these oft repeated mantras, however. But they persist and are followed to the point of becoming dogmatic fervor.
But like some kind of Maslowian Hierarchy of Needs in composition, the Elements of Design are the next layer, the next step, the next rung up on the ladder of art.
Art.
Do you see yourself as an artist? You should. It’s not until you do that you will begin to see and think in the ways necessary to break through the proverbial glass ceiling above you and your wildlife photography and begin to evolve and grow. Until you begin thinking like an artist, you will likely be forever trapped inside of the artificial boundaries of snapshots and “documenting nature.”
The funny thing about the internet is that anyone and everyone can publish their opinions, beliefs, feels, perspective, assumptions, and un-truths as if they were fact. Are you sure you trust me enough to believe all this potential psycho-babble?
Do a quick Google search for “the elements of design,” and you will see what I mean. Pouring through various websites, you will find a cornucopia of what other people consider to be the Elements of Design. Adobe, for instance, says typography is one. Other places suggest abstractions like “harmony” and “hierarchy” are part of the Elements of Design.
Adding to the confusion these days is the concept of the Principles of Design. This is real. This exists. And we will discuss these in future articles. But it’s important to understand that these are not the same thing as the Elements. The Principles of Design are more abstract and subjective in nature. The Elements of Design are far more tangible, which is why in all other forms of visual art they are typically considered to be the foundation of it all.
So, what exactly are the Elements of Design per the definition I subscribe to?
Line. Shape. Form. Color. Notan. Space. Texture.
In my best Count von Count impersonation from the Muppets, “seven, seven is the number of Elements.”
One of these elements, however, is usually not found in such lists. More often than not, the element called Value is listed in place of Notan. Value deals with the lightness of darkness of color. Notan, however, deals with the interplay of light and dark. We will, of course, get into all of this down the road. There is a method to my madness here that has an oversized impact upon the way I see and think and approach composition. But this isn’t me just trying to hang on to Arthur Wesley Dow’s original three elements of design. Instead, I am doing what all artists in art: I’m acknowledging the uniqueness of my craft and adapting the elements of design to my needs ass a wildlife photographer.
Stay tuned!