'The Rule of Thirds' and Basic Composition as it Pertains to Birding Photography

There are no rules when creating art; when we compose a photograph we are doing just that... creating art.
While there are no set rules, there are certain guidelines one can follow to make their image more pleasing to the eye.
What I believe to be one of the most important guidelines when composing a photograph with a bird as your subject, or any live subject for that matter, is the 'Rule of Thirds'.  Along with this, I think it is important to also follow what I call the 'Centerline Rule'.

I am going to start with this image that I drew some lines on to better illustrate these concepts.

This is a photograph of a Northern Pintail (NOPI) Drake.  Notice I did not fill the frame with the duck.  If I want to submit this image for use in someone's guide book, I would crop in on the duck.  But I am creating an artistic representation of what I saw thru the lens.  I want to show the viewer what type of habitat this duck can be found in.  A body of water that was half frozen made a great spot for a small flock of NOPI's.

The Rule of Thirds

Notice the 4 solid lines drawn on this image.  2 vertical and 2 horizontal.  They are evenly spaced creating 9 sections.  The individual sections are not as important as the 4 intersections these lines create.  I circled the lower LH intersection where the duck is.
Normally, I would center the bird on the Int., but I liked it a bit higher.  Like I said... there are no hard rules in art.  If able, I almost always place the eye on a 3rd line... but that would have moved the duck too far to the edge in this image.
There are 4 intersections you can use in composing your image... but there are some guidelines I like to follow that help me select which I will use.

The first is that this is a duck on the water.  If I placed it on the upper LH intersection it would look odd.  If the duck were captured in flight up in the air, I would have moved it to the upper LH intersection.  If it were caught in flight skimming the water, the lower would be used.

For images where your bird takes up more of the frame, putting the bird on a '3rd line' would be the way to handle it.

This Bald Eagles (BAEA) head is on the upper RH intersection.  It's body's centerline is on the RH Vertical third line.
Again I chose to come off the eye a bit at the intersection because the slight adjustment felt better to me... but it's close enough.

This Great Blue Heron (GBHE) was so close to me that it was all I could do to fit it in the frame along with some of it's reflection.  Here the GBHE's body centerline is on the RH 3rd line.

This Piping Plover (PIPL) Chick and it's reflection are on the LH third line.

These Common Goldeneye (COGO) are flying along the upper horizontal 3rd line.

The Centerline Rule

One of the most important considerations when composing a shot and the one I see misused all the time is the Centerline Rule.

Here are the basic guidelines:

- A bird must not LOOK OUT OF THE FRAME.
- A bird must not FLY OUT OF THE FRAME.

I say basic because there are times this can not be easily done.
For the marked up image of the NOPI, notice I made a red and black centerline.  I have the duck looking INTO the frame... not OUT of the frame.  Meaning, the bird is looking at the centerline (CL) of the frame.  Thus the two RH intersections are not available to use because the duck would be looking OUT of the frame.

This is pretty straight forward... until the bird does not cooperate with you and you end up with a shot like this male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (YBSA).

His body is facing to the right, but he is looking to the left.  Thus because he is looking to the left, I placed him on the RH 3rd line looking at the CL.

Sometimes you just have too much glass and the bird is very close.  Such was the case with this Great Cormorant (GRCO).

I was able to put it's eye on the CL by cropping a bit off the back end.  I could have pushed the GRCO more to the left, past the CL and it still would have looked good.


And then there are the times when all of this is tossed into the river and you do all you can to simply fit the bird in the frame.

Such was the case of this BAEA, that flew by so close I was lucky to get it all into the frame.
Well, almost all... the tip of one primary on it's RH wing may have been clipped.

We are more concerned with images that tell a story... images that show the habitat... not guide book shots like this BAEA.

The COGO's above are all flying in one direction across the frame.  I could have cropped it so the lead bird was at the center, but they would have been very small.  Again... these are guidelines for you to use... do what feels best.


There will be times when you can't use the CL rule at all.  Take this Female Osprey and her chick who has yet to fledge the nest.  One hell of a wild thunderstorm was bearing down... I was shooting from the truck... I had been photographing this family for a week... I had a feeling this storm was going to do the trick for chick #2.

Mom took off... Jr here was bouncing up and down in the maelstrom as it had been doing for a few days... higher and higher it bounced... flapped, caught some air and hovered feet above the nest... and then.....

Off it went.  This is an image from this birds very first flight... it was very quick... I rose up into the sky, then slowly circled around down into the marsh by it's mother to take cover from the storm.

In the first image, they are both looking different ways.  Unless you want to cut out one of the birds, unacceptable here, you have to have both looking out of the frame.


We are concerning ourselves with images that show some habitat.  Take this male Baltimore Oriole (BAOR) sitting atop a flowering tree.

Once again, the body is one way, but it's eyes are looking the other.  So I put the BOAR's body across the center and had it looking towards the CL.