Tip of the Week - B is for Background
B is for Background
For this week I want to touch briefly on the importance of the background.
You should first think of your shot, by determining what you want to portray,
than find the sweet spot to shoot from.
The background of an image can play several different characters in your images.
- It can be used as an instrument to enhance the focal point.
- It can be noise behind your subject to provide a sense of place or motion.
- OR it can actually be your focal point.
Take notice of the background and use it to your advantage.
- Make sure you don’t have “things” in the background that detract from your subject. For instance, when shooting in the city make sure you don’t have light poles or odd lines jetting out of your subject’s head, unless it is your intent have strange things poking out of the subject.
- Make sure you don’t have anything of high contrast that draws your attention away from your subject. This could be bright colors, or a glaring light, or even a strong reflection.
- Make sure you have good contrast between your focal point and the background, because if they are too similar in contrast then your subject will get lost in the background, and you will end up with a very flat very dull photo!
*Final note* Even though the background may seem insubstantial to your photo, it plays a much larger role in a perfect picture than you may realize. So give the background some thought the next time you go to snap your photo. A simple background check could guarantee you a great looking photo!
Here are some examples. This first photo is kind of cute. Three boys in a bucket and they are all making silly faces except the top of the fence is in the frame. It is distracting and kind of ruins the whole thing.
I love this photo. Gar is giving me one of his rare open faced smiles. The problem is that Uly’s legs are in the frame. Luckily his shorts are about the same color as the wall behind him so it should be pretty simple to crop in closer so you can’t really see what is in the background.
This one is a bit better still. Fence and grass in the background. I like natural backgrounds like this much better than bland studio backgrounds - although they do have a place.
This one is even better still. It is cropped in a bit closer and so you can’t see the sunlight patch on the fence. Now if I could just get them all to look at me… That a challenge for another time!
