Spotlight
Another possibility to enhance the importance of the main subject is to look for the spotlight. The dark areas around your subject take the role of a frame. Obviously metering is a bit more tricky here - using spot or center-weighted is certainly a good idea here.
A spotlight is a type of lighting used in photography to create a concentrated beam of light. This beam of light is then used to illuminate a subject, often for the purpose of highlighting certain features or creating a dramatic effect. Spotlights are often used in portrait photography, as they can be used to accentuate features such as the eyes or mouth. They can also be used to create a sense of depth by placing the subject in front of a dark background. In general, spotlights are a versatile tool that can be used to create a variety of effects in both studio and outdoor settings.
by Michael Wagner
Direct spot light is perfect by selective side light like in the following picture works very well as well.
by Detlev Franz
Hi-Key/Low-Key
In photography, the terms high key and low key refer to the overall tonal range of an image. A high key image is dominated by light tones, while a low key image is dominated by dark tones. High key images are typically associated with positive emotions like happiness and optimism, while low key images often have a more serious or somber feeling. When deciding which type of image to create, photographers must consider the mood they want to convey and the message they want to communicate. High key images are often used in advertising and fashion photography, as they tend to be visually pleasing and easy on the eye. Low key images, on the other hand, can be used to create a sense of mystery or suspense.
No matter what type of image you're trying to create, understanding the difference between high key and low key can help you achieve your desired effect. Here we can see how a contrast between an object and its surroundings can either stress the importance with a high contrast or hide it via low contrast - the following pictures shows bright (colored) objects in front of a dark (colored) background ("Low-Key" environment).
by Detlev Franz
Obviously this will also work the other way round as well - just place the quite dark main subject into a quite bright surrounding. Dark object in a "Hi-Key" environment.
by Michael Wagner
Backlit
Taking advantage of backlit scenes with semi-transparent objects is quite favorable in many situations. Just take a look at the wings of the bird or the flower below. The shiny effect here provides a pretty interesting contrast to the "solid" body. Further objects that fit very well for this kind of composition are e.g. hairs (portraits!), ice or shells. This light situation REQUIRES! a lens hood - otherwise your pictures will suffer from extreme flare problems and a significant loss of contrast!
The bird in the following picture receives some midday sunlight so the feathers glow quite beautifully.
by Detlev Franz
The next picture is probably a more typical example due to the more common side-light situation.
Monochromatic Light
The following pictures don't show any significant color differences - they're quite "monochromatic". The effect on us is often a bit weird because we don't have any anchors in the image where we could start to analyze it. However, just this "confusion" makes monochromatic pictures so interesting because we need a 2nd thought to make sense of the situation.
by Horst Schneider
In contrast to the previous picture the following one has the main subject areas quite monochrome - in the first moment we actually have to search the subject here. While the main subject is not obvious from the beginning, monochrome pictures are often interesting because you have to spend an additional moment to make sense of the scene.
Moods
This section is actually no description of a photographic technique but the key issue of a great nature photo is often just "being there". Many photos cannot be planned. So feel the moods and exploit unusual light situations. One main problem here is that these light moods disappear as fast as they come. Overall it's a good idea to shoot first and ask later - waiting for the perfect moment often results in missing the moment. A few pictures for the trash bin surely doesn't hurt as much as no picture at all so experiment and SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!
Colors, Colors, Colors!
Image composition is about light and light is about contrast/brightness and colors. It is either a good idea to suppress as many different colors as possible (resulting in monochromatic pictures when going to the extremes) or to make use of color contrasts by looking for complimentary colors - red, green & blue. The more pure the base color the more extreme is the difference (color contrast) making an image interesting. There are various possibilities to increase color saturation and therefore contrast. Polarizers are the most popular option.
These filters work pretty good to enhance the blue sky or shiny objects like the sea or other non-metallic object. The effect is maximized at a position 90 degrees of the sun. Often it is a good idea not to go for the max here. Graduated color filters can help as well here and there. There are also various sorts of direct color enhancers like "Redhancer" filter etc. pp. Just make sure that you know what you're doing. Anyway, the following picture is a quite typical example for contrasting colors - here red vs blue.
The next picture illustrates that we still get an interesting picture with a very limited range of colors. Just this limitation makes a picture often interesting because it's simply so unusual.
by Horst Schneider
You can have a beautiful composition of a great subject but they're actually few things that are more impressive than extremely colorful scenes - such pictures immediately suck all the attention of a viewer. Just make sure that you handle such subjects with case because the effect is usually limited to the initial surprise of the viewer.
by Horst Schneider