{"id":16748,"date":"2023-03-11T09:11:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T20:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=16748"},"modified":"2023-03-12T21:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T08:18:35","slug":"background-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/16748","title":{"rendered":"Background Control"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Low<\/a>
Low key image of Weweia\/NZ Dabchick and chick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Controlling the background can make a huge difference in an image. Being consciously aware of this is an important area to develop as you progress your photography. We start by looking for subjects, then subjects in good light, next comes subjects in good light with good backgrounds that don’t distract from the subject. Small changes in position can significantly alter a background and I have written on this in the past<\/a>. Getting low is often a very useful way of improving backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todays image shows the difference in images taken close together in time and location but with a subtle difference in background. To set the scene, I was photographing this Weweia\/NZ Dabchick with it\u2019s chick in low diffused light. The were swimming between me and a low rocky islet with trees growing from it. When between me and the islet the dark rock edge and trees kept reflections from the water and gave a lovely dark background for a low key image as shown at the head of the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they swam to the side, reflections came into play and changed the background. You can just see a curved tree trunk on the right showing the edge of the previous dark background. In this case with a moving subject it was not really an option to move to regain the background. It was more a matter of choosing when to trigger the shutter to achieve the desired result.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Weweia\/NZ Dabchick and chick with a less pleasing background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These images also highlight the importance of manual exposure. The light falling on the birds was unchanged so the exposure needed to stay the same. If using an automatic mode, the reflection on the water would have brightened the scene and potentially reduced the exposure resulting in underexposure of the birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background Control – consciously controlling backgrounds can make a big difference to your bird photos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Background Control - consciously controlling backgrounds can make a big difference to your bird photos","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[982,3,29,17],"tags":[1123,26,25,1122,144,247,1021,221,983,609,190],"class_list":["post-16748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-birds","category-new-zealand","category-tips","tag-backgrounds","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds","tag-low-key-photography","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-bird","tag-nikkor-z-800mm-f6-3-vr-s","tag-nikon","tag-nikon-z9","tag-nikonnz","tag-photography","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nBackground Control - 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Background Control - small changes in position can completely change a background","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Kawau t\u016b\u012b\/Little Black Shag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LittleBlackShag-20230416-NZ9_3115-1-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LittleBlackShag-20230416-NZ9_3115-1-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LittleBlackShag-20230416-NZ9_3115-1-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LittleBlackShag-20230416-NZ9_3115-1-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12049,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/12049","url_meta":{"origin":16748,"position":2},"title":"Backyard Bird Hide – Developing the Setup","author":"tony","date":"April 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Backyard Bird Hide - 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Nikon Z flagship squeezes pst the Z8 to the front of the queue again.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Black Shag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10399,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10399","url_meta":{"origin":16748,"position":4},"title":"Bird Photography Tips – Out of Focus Foreground Elements","author":"tony","date":"February 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Using out of focus foreground elements as a compositional tool in bird photography","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rockwren-DSC_3317-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rockwren-DSC_3317-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rockwren-DSC_3317-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rockwren-DSC_3317-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9553,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9553","url_meta":{"origin":16748,"position":5},"title":"Nikon 500mm f5.6PF an Evolution in Bird Photography Gear.","author":"tony","date":"December 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I have had a Nikon 500mm f5.6 lens on pre-order since shortly after it was announced in August 2018. Worldwide supply issues have required patience but luckily it was delivered last week. I have had a couple of chances to do some initial brief tests so will share some first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Zealand Kinfgfisher\/Kotare in a blooming Pohutkawa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/KotarePohutukawa-DSC_0754-weblogo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/KotarePohutukawa-DSC_0754-weblogo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/KotarePohutukawa-DSC_0754-weblogo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/KotarePohutukawa-DSC_0754-weblogo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/NZDabchick-20230107-NZ9_4357-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}