Composition Problem

[Downrigger]

Here, I liked the Starlings on the Bison's back and wanted that to be the story, so this is not really a photograph of a Bison, but of birds. I could have cropped out the Bison's head, or included more of her but, in the end, compromised. I'd love some ideas on how others might tackle this.

[Mike Buckley]

I would probably exclude the bison's eye. It is so riveting that it detracts from the story you are telling. Having cropped to exclude the eye, I would clone to remove the very little grass that would then be remaining.

Nice story with great detail and colors in the background!

[NorthernFocus]

This is a tough one. My initial impression was to go tighter and totally eliminate the bison's head. But I saved a copy of your image and toyed with that and wasn't overly impressed with my effort. That said, all the head or none seems the best. Trying the opposite end may have been interesting too.

[FrankMi]

I'd love some ideas on how others might tackle this.

As Dan says, this is a tough one. Any time you have objects in a scene that are competing for the viewer's attention you need to consider what the attention grabbers are. Typically they are:

• Human elements (like a human body) before non-human elements
• Faces before other human elements, and on the face, the eyes first
• Large, dominant elements before smaller elements
• Bright objects over dark objects
• Areas of high contrast over areas of low contrast
• Sharp elements before out-of-focus elements
• Recognizable elements before unrecognizable elements
• Oblique objects (in perspective) or diagonal lines before flat strait lines
• Warm colors over cool colors
• Saturated (vibrant) colors over bland (unsaturated) colors
• Elements of emotional significance over those with none
• Isolated elements before cluttered elements

When you have conflicting elements such as something very large and something small in the same image, try to get an acceptable balance in the composition between size and the elements below it in the list above.

Ideally, if the birds were bright red, for example, it could tip the balance.

In this case I would follow Mike's suggestion and maybe even crop just below the horns so that it is obvious what the birds are sitting on. Next, I might let the bison go soft, slightly out of focus and bland to tone down and minimize it's huge size. Then I would get the birds as sharp as you can without over sharpening and maybe boost the vibrancy just a little bit.

If that is still not enough, then I might try zooming in on the birds and replace the background with a scene that includes a hint of Bison in such a way that it becomes obvious that the birds are sitting on a bison's back. That might take thinking about the scene before you took the image and trying to get the elements lined up beforehand. If that was not possible, then at lest you would have a second image of the same scene that could be merged into the background.

I hope this can help.

[Downrigger]

Great input. Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Glad you liked the attempt, Mike. I guess I left the eye in because it seemed to express an aggravated tolerance but I will work on your ideas, and yours too, Dan.

Frank - I ought to print your bullet list and tape over my live view screen - I don't us it for anything but histograms anyway.

[Downrigger]

Here's another try - responding to the suggestions. Better I think, but still not quite there. While I was realizing this I figured out that the shot I needed would be right from the front, down the spine at a slight angle. But that would have meant getting farther from the truck than I think would have been wise. I do look forward to going back and trying this again.

[NorthernFocus]

I do like it better. Interestingly I would not have included the horn thinking it would be distracting. But in this case, the image isn't about the details of the birds. It's about the story. And the horn definitely adds to the story. So IMO it is an improvement. It tells the story without drawing as much attention as the eye.

[Mike Buckley]

Mark,

I wouldn't change anything to your first image except the location of the bottom of the frame. I was thinking of this:

[dragon76]

Here, I liked the Starlings on the Bison's back and wanted that to be the story, so this is not really a photograph of a Bison, but of birds. I could have cropped out the Bison's head, or included more of her but, in the end, compromised. I'd love some ideas on how others might tackle this.

Just a suggestion if you want something different and if you dont mind losing a bird, try to crop it just above the bison's horns, a bit on the left and top and after the third bird from the left. The curvature of the bision's back should create some sort of rectangular ying & yang type of separation between the in-focus bison's back and the out-of -ocus back ground top left. if you know what I mean. Otherwise the image looks fine the way it is.

Cheers

Dean

[Pappadi]

I think Frank's suggestion is good.
Mark, your edited version is an improvement but I would include a bit more of the bison's head. And I wouldn't darken the birds or the backdrop. The bison's coat can also be a little less dark.

[Clive Kirby]

Mark
Bit of a poser, the main problem being one of size. I think the cropped version works well and is a significant improvement. I like the shot with just the bison's horn in the corner. I think Dean's suggestion to crop in a little tighter and lose the right hand bird might work a little better. I think it would reduce the bison's coat to part of the background and allow a viewer to be drawn to the birds and the horn and tell the story you are after. Great idea - hope you get it to your satisfaction. I would be interested to see the final image.
regards
Clive

[IzzieK]

I like Dan's version better...the birds are story here not the bison, so including the horn and cropping it tightly as per Dan's version is really stronger.

[Downrigger]

Boy - do I appreciate the input. I like Mike's solution and will work my own in that direction.

I think the general and overall lesson here is that it can be very difficult to compose to tell a story about one thing interacting with/relating to another especially if the two elements are highly asymmetric per Frank's excellent list. (From your head, Frank, or some other source?)

I think the particular lesson from this problem is that one has to take the right picture to begin with, and concatenating disparate elements into a composition reflecting a relationship is, first and foremost a creative challenge at the shooting end, and in this case I should try again. These Bison wander around at Antelope State Park, 45 minutes away, and I'll just have to pack lunch and get back down there.

[FrankMi]

I think the general and overall lesson here is that it can be very difficult to compose to tell a story about one thing interacting with/relating to another especially if the two elements are highly asymmetric per Frank's excellent list. (From your head, Frank, or some other source?)

I can't remember exactly where this list came from Mark, but a lot of the notes I have came from discussions like this one and the web references pointed out by numerous CiC contributors.

[Walj]

Hi Mark,

First of all, thanks for sharing. Below is my simple comp..