Songbird Photography - Clean or Dirty?

In this video, I talk about my evolving preferences around songbird photography. In this one I show a lot of examples, starting with simple clean looks and progressing to images that are "busier" with more elements including foreground and backgrounds with color and patterns.

Take a look and see where you are at on the spectrum of clean vs dirty

[russellward]

everyday any day love the way birds look in the wild

[JH-lzdh]

I love the dirty ones! It's like documenting history. It tells the story of the animal

[markvanderhum]

Hi,
I really like your busy, dirty, environment showing photo’s way more than the clean ones.
So much more story telling.

[aquarellefoto]

Dirty gets my vote. You’ve inspired me to do some more work on my backyard bird studio. I like the diversity of seeing the birds in a more natural setting. Kind of a hybrid between backyard and wild. Native vegetation is also a plus for pollinators.

[MrTmiket]

Thanks for sharing another wonderful video like always, I love clean photos but being a bird photographer myself I really enjoy the dirty look including everything that's going on in picture not just a bird on a stick 🐦❤️👍

[chrismarois]

Clean or dirty… I am always towards what the situation calls for. I Like all your images.

[clarenceharris]

I like the bird photos with natural environment around them

[andrewkeir]

I really respect the clean shots, but I have always preferred the more habitat focused images. The artistic merits and the story are more important

[ChristopherErringtonPhoto]

I love the portrait style shots but the dirty ones speak directly to me. The best way to explain it would be the portrait style is like a video without the audio. When photo is “dirty” it’s video and audio. - I hope that makes sense. Keep up the great content!

[davidolson]

Hi Scott great video great subject matter. I’ve been doing photography for over 30 years and I believe you need to have both the clean and dirty images in your portfolio. Both tell a story one shows the bird in a cleaner guidebook fashion. The other shows the beauty you can capture out in the wild while just carrying your camera around looking for birds. So I think clean and dirty imagery is required to be a diverse bird photographer. Also your viewers and fellow wildlife photographers will appreciate them both.

[suzannegmirek]

Hi Scott. I'm amazed by both "genres" you photograph. Incredible, beautiful photos! You got me thinking. When I photograph in my backyard, my favorite place in all the world, I photograph with the feeders and baths included. People say to me that the photos are good, but why not put a branch there and get a "clean" photo? (well, they don't say "clean" photo). I do that a little, but honestly, I like my "dirty dirty" photos the best :-) I love seeing that I feed the birds. I love seeing what kind of food they like. I love being able to even recognize some individuals. I'm not photographing for a book or a magazine. I suppose some people think I'm crazy for spending so much on the camera and lenses for photos of birds at bird feeders or bird houses. Still, that enables me to see what I don't see without them. I saw Purple Martin & Bluebird babies' first flights, because their houses were in my front yard and I watched them every morning. I saw Mom & Dad Purple Martins following the babies and coming back with them and when I zoomed in, I saw Mom or Dad had dragonflies in their mouths, like they were maybe teaching the babies. I saw those Martin babies come back to the house and miss landing a few times till they learned how to land. I could never do that "in the wild" IF I could find the nest, because I couldn't be there that much. And I feel good about providing the house for them. So, I like it in the photo too :-) Thanks for another very interesting video...

[rogerapplegatephotography]

Scott - "Clean or Dirty"? As with everything, it depends. For me it comes down to the specific artistic aesthetics of the photo and the ultimate print. Each concept has it place and appeal.

[kevinjmurrphotography]

100% ok with the "dirty" look, to me it adds more to the image and makes it more interesting. Yes nice clean images are nice too, but they start to become all the same. Though there nice to have in your catalogue but mixed in with the "dirty shots. Maybe mine are to dirty though lol. Great video Scott

[bboycyphur]

If I had to pick one, I would pick dirty. The story and habitat contribute so much to make a truly unique photo vs only a subject taken out of context. Both are difficult to achieve overall though. Great photos and this is a great topic! 👍

[limboigah]

Pics in background of this video - clean.

[penelopereeves]

Dirty all the way for me, I admire the skill and beauty of some of the ‘clean’ images but I like some context around my birds.

[TomReichner]

I love both styles of images equally.

"Clean" images really rock! As long as there is enough in the frame to anchor the composition, and it doesn't just look like a bird and a stick floating in space.

So called "dirty" images really rock too! As long as there is order to all of the foliage in the frame and it is not just a hodge-podge of sundry textures and tonal values. In other words, there should be a uniformity to the dirtiness.

I am not a fan of shoot-thru foreground blur that causes parts of the bird to appear translucent. I like the parts of the bird to either be clearly rendered, or totally obscured by the foreground vegetation. If half of a bird is clearly visible, crisply rendered, and the other half of that bird is completely blocked by foliage, then that looks great to my eye. But when part of the bird is visible, but in a cloudy, translucent way, that is bothersome to my sense of aesthetic and just doesn't look right. I understand how others could like that look ... I mean, I "get it" ... but I just really dislike that look myself.

[victorlim]

Great photos! I prefer the environmental style aka dirty.

[russellward]

with the covid issues over the last few years so many of the local farmers didn't work fields in my area and they went to weeds. And the habitat went crazy for the birds

[Photographer]

When elements of the environment take priority as the major points of interest over the bird, well, to my way of thinking, it becomes an environmental photo.