- 2 days ago
Dalmatian Pelicans Photography Workshops:
21/01/2025: 3 places available: https://www.wetravel.com/trips/purely-pelicans-2025-no3-george-blonsky-lake-kerkini-88212547
17/01/2025: 2 places available: https://www.wetravel.com/trips/purely-pelicans-george-blonsky-18734045
Dear Friends,
Welcome to another wildlife filming tutorial, this time covering 6 of the best cinematic framing and compositional techniques that will elevate your wildlife filming & photography to the next level.
I hope you find this one of value. Link to the Blog post is below.
Thanks so much for watching and don't forget to drop me a comment or question below and I will do my best to answer.
all the best
g
Please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Complete list of affiliated links to my favourite gear & clothing plus other resources I am happy to recommend:
https://georgesblonsky.com/resources/
or... visit my Amazon storefront at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/georgesblonsky-geopictorial?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_aipsfgeorgesblonsky-geopictorial_W5WJ9NPTVZPRM87Z5QD9
Websites:
Workshops: https://georgesblonsky.com/
Editorial: http://www.geopictorial.com
PATREON:
If you'd like t
21/01/2025: 3 places available: https://www.wetravel.com/trips/purely-pelicans-2025-no3-george-blonsky-lake-kerkini-88212547
17/01/2025: 2 places available: https://www.wetravel.com/trips/purely-pelicans-george-blonsky-18734045
Dear Friends,
Welcome to another wildlife filming tutorial, this time covering 6 of the best cinematic framing and compositional techniques that will elevate your wildlife filming & photography to the next level.
I hope you find this one of value. Link to the Blog post is below.
Thanks so much for watching and don't forget to drop me a comment or question below and I will do my best to answer.
all the best
g
Please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Complete list of affiliated links to my favourite gear & clothing plus other resources I am happy to recommend:
https://georgesblonsky.com/resources/
or... visit my Amazon storefront at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/georgesblonsky-geopictorial?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_aipsfgeorgesblonsky-geopictorial_W5WJ9NPTVZPRM87Z5QD9
Websites:
Workshops: https://georgesblonsky.com/
Editorial: http://www.geopictorial.com
PATREON:
If you'd like t
Category
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TravelTranscript
00:00So hello my friends and welcome to another tutorial video on wildlife filmmaking.
00:07If this is your first time visiting my channel, welcome! My name is George, I'm a wildlife
00:13photographer, cameraman and that's pretty much what I do on this channel. I make videos all about
00:19photographing and filming wildlife out in the field, some DSLR camera trapping if that's of
00:28interest to you, some tutorials like this one. So hopefully you'll stick around, hopefully you'll
00:33find it interesting and hopefully by the end I will have earned your subscription as well.
00:39So yeah, today's tutorial is about cinematic framing and composition for filming wildlife.
00:48So how do we frame a shot to make our story more interesting, more compelling? How do we
00:57use compositional techniques to draw and hold attention on our subjects?
01:06There are various techniques we can use, compositional techniques, to achieve this,
01:13most of which are as true for wildlife filming as they are for photography. So if you're coming from a
01:20photographic background as I'm sure most of you are, you've probably heard of a lot of these.
01:27The difference for wildlife filming as opposed to photography is that you have to hold those
01:34rules techniques over a moving image as opposed to creating a still employing those techniques.
01:41So the first compositional technique is one I'm sure most of you have already heard of,
01:48especially coming from a photographic background, and it's probably the one that people learn first of
01:55all when starting photography or filmmaking, and that is the rule of thirds or law of thirds.
02:04I should also say that even though it's called a rule or a law of thirds,
02:09it's definitely not written in stone. You can break it, you can bend it
02:14to suit your purposes, to better tell your story, to better bring focus to your subject. And especially
02:22if you're using other compositional techniques as well, you don't have to adhere to rule of thirds,
02:30it's not set in stone. Having said all of that,
02:39it's the first rule for a reason, and that's because it's one of the most powerful rules to learn.
02:45And if you do place your subject on one of those horizontal or vertical thirds lines,
02:52or on any of the intersecting points, it does create a powerful, strong image.
02:59The difficulty for wildlife filmmaking is actually maintaining that position whilst you are following
03:06your subject, or if you have set up a static shot that your subject is going to move through,
03:13is actually creating the scene in the first place, framing the scene, I should say, in the first place
03:19in such a way that it adheres to rule of thirds. And secondly, that the subject entering the frame
03:26will move along one of those thirds lines, or stop on an intersecting point, or something like that.
03:35All of those things come together and create a strong image.
03:39So a useful tool that is available to us as photographers and filmmakers is being able to
03:51see a grid on your viewfinder, which will help you maintain your subject's position.
03:59You can look up on your camera's menu in the user manual on the menu on the back of your
04:04cameras,
04:05and you can actually bring up a grid, a 3x3 grid, so that you have that visual reference when you're
04:14actually making your composition. So as I mentioned before, it's a rule that's not set in stone and you
04:21can break it. And it's good to know certain ways that you might be able to break it and certain
04:28things
04:28that help you break it. So for example, one of the main things that will help you break the
04:35rule of thirds is having symmetry in your shot. So one of the most intentional ways, if you like,
04:45of breaking the rule for a subject is by having it right smack bang in the middle of your shot.
04:55And again, it's sort of breaking it because it's in the middle and not on one of the thirds lines,
05:00but it
05:00isn't because most likely the eye line will be on the top thirds line or just above it.
05:08So you're sort of keeping to the rule, but also breaking it by having the subject right in the middle.
05:13So that's a way of breaking the rule for filming a subject. If you are filming a landscape,
05:26an intentional way of breaking the rule might be instead of setting your horizon to be on one of
05:32the thirds lines, which is normal, you might want it cutting right across the middle of your frame.
05:43Again, this is usually regarded as a complete no-no, splitting your frame in half. But in the instance where
05:51you have symmetry in your shot created by something like reflections, it actually can be a really
06:01powerful composition, as I'll show you in just a second as well for one of the shots I did a
06:09few weeks
06:09ago during my pelicans workshops. So remembering for a second what I just said a moment ago about placing your
06:21subject in the middle, it's also useful in instances where you want to show the strength of that animal,
06:31the power, the authority, the status, any one of those feelings, by placing the subject in the middle
06:39with the eyes near either on the top thirds line or above it, just gives that impression of strength
06:46and power authority. And it just adds to that feeling in the shot. So I have a few shots lined
06:54up here for you
06:55to show you. The first of which is of a griffin vulture that I placed right in the middle. You'll
07:05notice that the eyes are in the top box, just above the top thirds line. And this goes to its
07:13power, its
07:14status, how prideful it looks. The following shot of the koipu, it's not showing any of that. The purpose of
07:25this shot was to show detail of the orange teeth. Its eyes, though, are in the top box, just above
07:34the
07:35top thirds line. So it's also adhering in a way to the rule of thirds, but also breaking it by
07:41putting
07:41the subject right in the middle. The last shot of the pelican here, again, I wanted to show, wanted to
07:48show when I was filming this, I wanted to show the power and the strength of the bird, its authority,
07:54because the story that I was filming at the time was about how the older pelicans intimidate the
08:02younger ones. And basically, they get first dibs on fish and what have you. So I wanted to show how
08:13imposing an adult pelican might be. And framing it in that way, right in the centre, with the eyes
08:20looking right down the barrel of the lens at me, it just gives that impression to the viewer.
08:26So the other instance I mentioned when you might break the rule of thirds was with a static shot.
08:34The example I have for you is of the shot I took of the pelicans during my workshop,
08:42whereby the conditions that morning were so calm, and the lake was a perfect mirror of the sky,
08:51and you could basically hardly tell where the lake ended and the sky began.
08:56And whereas the rule of thirds would say don't put the horizon through the middle,
09:00here it really works well, especially with the birds flying into frame,
09:05some of which are on thirds lines, some of which are not. Some, even when they fly in,
09:12they actually land on intersecting points. And it all adds to the strength of the image, in my opinion.
09:22So there are instances where you can get away with breaking the rule.
09:32So compositional technique number two is again one that is commonly used by landscape photographers,
09:42actually, which is leading lines. These can be any sort of natural lines that you find in the landscape,
09:51whether it's a stream running through your shot, whether it's a line of trees, a hedgerow, a wall,
10:00anything like that, that just creates a line through your shot, is a leading line. And they create visual pathways,
10:09which both lead your viewer's eye into your landscape, and they can lead your viewer's eye to your subject,
10:20or to where your subject might emerge from. So, in the example I have lined up for you,
10:27the scene opens with two boulders, which form an L. And I've placed that L along the left hand side
10:36and bottom
10:37thirds lines. The corner of that L is on the intersection between those two lines.
10:45So your eye is just naturally drawn to that point, even though there's no subject in shot at the moment.
10:53As soon as the Suslik, the ground squirrel, pops its head up, your eye is sort of,
10:57is already there and expecting it. So it's a nice surprise. And the cuteness factor, of course,
11:03helps with munching on a little bit of grass,
11:06and makes for a great shot. So leading lines, along with rule of thirds, has helped create a strong
11:17composition in this instance.
11:19Okay, so the third technique I want to talk about is basically keeping balance in your frame.
11:26What do I mean by that? So one of the compositional techniques we use, for example,
11:33is the use of negative space, which basically means having empty space to the side, to either left or right,
11:44of our subject, which is basically blank space, uncluttered, without distraction.
11:56That is a useful, and it's a very pretty compositional technique.
12:04But it can, in some instances, lead to a shot looking slightly lopsided, a bit heavy on the one side,
12:11imbalanced, basically. And the way we overcome that is by trying to have as much weight on the one side
12:20of the frame as we do on the other, despite having negative space.
12:27I should also mention, at this point, the concept of headroom, which is having enough space,
12:34leaving enough space above your subject's head, so that it doesn't look cramped in the shot.
12:40And, for lack of a better expression, looking room, which is basically leaving space to the side of your
12:47subject, where your subject is looking to, either for where it's looking or where it might move to.
12:56Even if it doesn't move in that direction, it's useful to have that space to the side of it.
13:02In the shot I have lined up for you to illustrate this, I'm using leading lines, rule of thirds,
13:10and balance in the shot. So the branch forms a leading line to the third, top left third intersection.
13:20The balance to the shot, because at the moment the shot is weighted to the left, is brought about by
13:28the fact that the bee eater flies in from the right. It lands on the branch and it is perfectly
13:35on the
13:36third, on the left most third line, with its head at the intersection. And again, balance is created
13:43because it flies off to the right out of frame. Again, in that shot, I've made sure the bird has
13:51enough headroom, so it doesn't look cramped in the shot. And also, I've left the space to the right of
14:00frame, where the bird is looking to and where it has come from and is going to move to.
14:06So the fourth compositional technique is one that I mentioned earlier when breaking the rule of
14:14thirds, and that is symmetry. So symmetry, utilising symmetry in your shots is a really impactful
14:23compositional technique when you can find it and use it. And especially when you use it in conjunction
14:29with other techniques, rule of thirds, etc., it can be, it can basically raise your composition, your frame
14:38to another level. So in the shot that I have lined up for you now, we have a pair of
14:46great crested
14:47grieves, whose natural behaviour is to basically mimic each other. They mirror each other's movements.
14:58That's part of their courtship. So it makes for a perfect situation to use symmetry in the shot,
15:04and placing them in the middle in this way does just that. Their bodies, if you notice, are on the
15:10bottom
15:11thirds line, and their reflections actually lead your eye into the space between them.
15:23So we have leading lines, thirds, and symmetry, as well as negative space to the left and the right,
15:31because it's a pretty empty shot.
15:34So we're utilising a lot of compositional techniques in one shot to create a strong image.
15:41So the fifth compositional technique I want to talk about is depth of field.
15:49In many instances, and again this is as true for filmmaking as it is in photography,
15:55in many instances you want to separate your subject from its background, which might be busy
16:01or distracting. So being able to choose a wide aperture to throw the background out of focus
16:08is a strong compositional technique. Equally, you might want to choose a small aperture,
16:15because you might have multiple subjects at different points, at different depths within the scene,
16:21and you want them all sharp, because they all form part of the story.
16:27Have a look at the next few clips and see where I have chosen to have a wide aperture
16:36to separate the subject from busy backgrounds. And in the last instance of the pelicans flying across
16:43the sunrise, I have chosen a small aperture. It's a wider angle, which helps obviously,
16:52and a small aperture, so that when the birds fly in at different depths and they fly through the shot,
16:59they are all sharp front to back. So the last compositional technique I want to talk about
17:05is utilising frames within a frame. And this can be a tough one to achieve when filming wildlife,
17:11because there are not too many naturally occurring frames within nature. So what we're really talking about
17:19is utilising things like, for example, photographing a bird through foliage, framing it between the leaves,
17:29framing a bird within its nest hole, framing an animal in its den hole, and using those sorts of frames
17:41for urban wildlife. For urban wildlife, it's somewhat easier to find those. So for example,
17:46you can find an owl perched on a barn window, on rocks, walls with gaps in them, etc.
17:58Fences, any sort of thing that an animal might peep through could be used as a frame within a frame.
18:05So I've got a couple of clips lined up for you to illustrate that. And you will notice that in
18:12a lot of them, it's not just using frame within a frame, but it's also using other techniques that
18:19we've talked about. So I'll talk you through them now. In the first shot, we have this owl
18:28looking through the foliage, followed by woodpecker feeding its chick. Again, the hole, as for the little
18:37door mouse, is placed on the top left intersecting point, utilising law of thirds. For the
18:46penduline tit, we've got it, again, centre frame. The little bittern is framed through the reeds. The
18:57little owl chick is framed within its burrow. And lastly, the turtle is framed through the long grasses.
19:07So as you can see, utilising frames, shapes that you find in nature to frame your subject within those
19:18can also be a really powerful compositional technique. Okay, so that wraps up all the compositional
19:25techniques I wanted to discuss with you. There are a few more, such as using shapes that you might find
19:32within nature, geometric and otherwise, and random, using numbers, odd numbers, particularly, work well
19:44for a number of subjects that you might have in shot. There's quite a few more, which I'm sure you'll
19:51enjoy discovering for yourselves along the way. The overall aim of using these compositional techniques
19:59is to be able to emphasise your subject within the frame, to showcase their beauty in the detail and
20:08in the whole, and to illustrate their habits, their movements, their behaviours, and to tell their story
20:16in a way that is beautiful and a joy to watch for the viewer. So I hope you've enjoyed watching.
20:25I hope
20:25this has been of value to you. I've written an article as well to accompany this video, which is on
20:31my blog
20:31page, which I will link to in the description below. Please do drop me a comment, a question if you
20:38have
20:39one. I always enjoy hearing from you. So thank you so much for watching, and I shall see you all
20:45again soon. Bye for now.
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