What Makes Wildlife Photos Stand Out

If your wildlife photos are not drawing attention here's what you need to focus on to help your wildlife photos to stand out.

What Makes Wildlife Photos Stand Out

Wildlife photography isn't easy. Finding subjects, positioning yourself, getting them in focus before they move, lighting, composition, there is a lot that makes taking even an average wildlife photo difficult.

If you want your wildlife photos to stand out you've got to go even farther. Focus on the following areas to increase attention for your photos.

Stand Out Composition

Good wildlife photos must be well done technically. That said, photos that are in focus and properly lit are only the baseline.

This is the minimum requirement.

Creating photos that stand out requires strong composition. What makes composition strong? Great composition follows the rules of composition. Alternatively, it breaks those rules in unexpected ways.

To improve your composition focus on these topics.

Color

Color is one of the most powerful composition tools we have. Combine warm and cool colors to increase depth. Warm colors come towards us and cool colors recede. Complimentary colors are the most powerful example. Orange and Blue are common colors in nature.

If your subject is in the sun at golden hour then they're going to be a bit more orange. Pair that subject with a cool blue background and you've got a composition that will pop.

Red and green are another great complementary pair. Birds including Cardinals, Tanengers, and the Vermillion Flycatcher are common in different parts of the US. Photograph them surrounded by green vegetation to make their colors pop.

Contrast

We are the descendants of people who didn't wander away from the fire. If you wandered away from the fire then you got eaten. On the other hand, if you didn't wander away then you survived to have babies. As a result we have a natural fear of the dark.

You think you're not afraid of the dark. Okay. Then let's walk down this dark alley in a strange city together. You can use this fear to create more interesting photos.

First, dark areas in your photos helps viewers focus on the bright areas. Second, if those areas are at the edges, then people forget about the edges. This makes the photo feel more real. Finally, darkness stimulates our sympathetic nervous system. As a result, they pay closer attention.

It seems silly. However, rich dark areas in our photos make people pay more attention. They don't get scared. Nonetheless, they do pay attention. Unconsciously viewers watch for things which might jump out of those dark areas at them.

Clear Storytelling

Composition is a critical part of storytelling. Therefore, we can use the composition tools listed above to help us tell more interesting stories. That said, composition is only one part of storytelling.

At a minimum, storytelling requires a subject doing an action. Of course, good storytelling requires a journey. Our subject should overcome a challenge.

How do we tell complete stories with our wildlife photos? Generally speaking, we don't. After all, we don't need resolution to that story. In fact, leaving the story unfinished can be more powerful. Think about cliffhangers in tv shows.

Emotional Impact

The biggest thing we can do to help our wildlife photos stand out is to make sure we include emotional impact. How can we ensure we've got emotional impact?

First, we need to understand what emotions move people. Anger, frustration, and other negative emotions are often the most powerful. However, hope, love, awe, and other more positive emotions are also powerful.

How do we include emotional impact? First, we need action and likely interaction. Hunting, being hunted, or interacting with babies turns otherwise good wildlife photos into stand out pictures.

Uniqueness

The best way to make our wildlife photos standout is to find unique ways to photograph them. That said, this is also the most challenging. What is uniqueness? That's hard to nail down. However, uniqueness simply means photographic compositions that are not common.

We can make stand out wildlife photos by framing our subject within the frame. Surrounding them with out-of-focus branches that are darker than the subject is a good start. However, that's becoming more and more common.

Therefore, finding I can't tell you more unique ways to photograph wildlife. Otherwise, if I did, they might become overused. As a result, all I can say is to think outside the box whenever you go out to photograph wildlife.

In Conclusion

You can create wildlife photos that stand out better. With stronger composition, storytelling, and more your photos will draw more interest. If you have any questions about creating more stand out photos contact me.