In the next of our fast-track guides to getting better pictures on safari we show you a simple way to beef up compositions.

With so many wonderful wildlife images out there how do you make your photographs stand out from the crowd?  That’s the challenge we’re happily puzzling to solve during each photo session on our safaris and the good news is there’s actually lots of different things you can do to help add an extra bit of oomph to your shots.

One simple, but extremely effective way to hold interest in a picture is to frame your subject twice.  Creating a second frame within the existing framework of your image is a neat compositional trick that has the instant effect of adding both emphasis and additional interest. The viewer’s eye is directed, and pretty much compelled, to stay looking at the subject you’ve deliberately chosen to spotlight by framing it again within the frame. It’s a bit like using bold capitals, or underlining something twice in a piece of text, when you want to enforce a point or indicate your strength of feeling about something.

We often use this framing device to separate wildlife subjects from their backgrounds. And on our safaris we’re always on the look-out for opportunities where natural features enclose or wrap round subjects to better showcase them. When we can’t find the ideal natural features we’re looking for; we’ve learned to create our own frames-within-frames to big up our subjects when we need to.

Leopard in tree, Kruger
Canon EOS-1Ds MkII with EF 500mm lens plus 1.4x converter, 1/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 125
Steve says: Exploiting the strong diagonal lines of the dead tree and the way its branches framed this leopard it was possible to create a powerful shot even when the subject was quite small in the overall frame. Here it was a matter of visualising the potential shot and then waiting/hoping the leopard would oblige by walking into that obvious inner frame.

Our top tips for framing subjects within the frame

• Get into the habit of looking for the sort of natural features that lend themselves well to this compositional technique. The more you train your eye to spot natural ‘windows’ you can work with, the swifter your innate response will be in locating them when you’re out in the field.
• Be on the hunt for anything that creates a wraparound visual halo around your subject, for example, a small rodent framed in the entrance to its burrow, or a leopard against the dark hollow of its rocky lair, but be alert also for less obvious features like the curve of a tree branch, bending grasses, looping leaves draping round your subject, gaps in the vegetation, rock arches, the arc of a rainbow or a curling cloud bank.
• Bear in mind your subject doesn’t need to be totally surrounded by your frame-within-the-frame; the technique can work just as effectively if the frame is only partial, or hinted at.
• Better still, find something where the shape of your frame echoes or mirrors that of your subject.
• Keep the rest of the background in frame-within-frame shots as uniform as possible; your aim in all this is to spotlight your subject as much as possible so you don’t want anything else in the picture that might pull the eye away from the creature you want to shine a light on.
• Natural frames-within-frames are a great way to fill your image where your subject is smaller than you’d ideally like in the shot.

African elephant, Chobe
Canon EOS 1DX with EF 500mm lens, 1/2500 sec, f/9, ISO 320
Ann says: In this silhouette shot one elephant is framed by another in a play on scale using the classic, clearly recognisable shape of these lumbering pachyderms. Framing subjects with other subjects offers a fresh perspective on familiar, much-photographed wildlife.

• Obviously you won’t find frame-within-frame opportunities on every outing, especially ones with obliging subjects posing perfectly in them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t harness this technique to good effect. You can pull off some quite interesting frame-within-frame images where you use another wildlife subject as your framing device. An out of focus animal or bird in the foreground of your picture; its shape framing the more distant subject you’ve chosen to focus on, can work really well. Because you’re in effect creating a foreground layer through which your subject is viewed these pictures have a real feeling of depth to them that can be very arresting. The key is making sure your foreground layer is completely out of focus so select a narrow depth of field, around f/4 or f/5,6 say, or shoot with a large telephoto which has a narrow depth of field.
• Another extremely effective technique we like to use to frame our subjects twice is to photograph a subject in sharp focus framed completely by a soft focus colour wash (where background and foreground merge seamlessly) . It’s a very effective way to throw all the attention in an image onto your subject. To create these frame-within-frames you need to shoot wide open with minimal depth of field so only the subject, or the part of it that you elect to focus on, will be in sharp focus. To blur the foreground you’ll need to work at a low angle and shoot through foreground grasses, flowers or tree foliage to throw them out of focus. It’s a great technique for adding a sense of delicacy to the mood when photographing wild-flowers, birds or young wildlife.

• If there’s no foreground vegetation to shoot through to create these soft focus frame-within-frames you can still get foregrounds out of focus by getting down extremely low (place your camera as close to the ground as you can), exploit any natural humps and bumps and try shooting your subject from this angle. Take care to position so you have more of the same coloured ground rather than any sky in your background for this to keep everything harmonious around your subject.
• You can also exploit bokeh effects to create frames-within-frames – a great way for photographing small insects, butterflies and flowers. Shuffle your position a bit until the bokeh effect acts as a frame behind the head or body of your subject. You can do the same to frame a subject perfectly against the moon or setting sun on those magical occasions where you are able to get just the right position and bring subject and situation together perfectly.  
• Your frame-within-frame photographs will work best where you use the technique deliberately to convey something about your subject or how you feel about it. This could be something as simple as highlighting context, conveying information about your subject’s place within the eco-system, or it could be something more evocative and moody like a predator framed peering through a tangle of dense foliage to suggest hidden danger, or to showcase the amazing cryptic camouflage of a stealthy hunter. It’s your choice so let your imagination and your camera rip.

Tawny eagle watching marabou, Zimanga

Create depth in your pictures by framing a distant subject with an out of focus foreground subject as in this shot taken from Zimanga’s Scavenger Hill vulture restaurant hide, where the hierarchy of carrion-eaters queue testily for their turn at the table.

Canon EOS 1DX with EF100-400mm lens, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640