Choosing Right Background for Your Photos

Backgrounds can be a powerful narrative subject in photography. It is vital in that it gives your photo context. How your main photo suits your background gives your photo more narrative and becomes a more valuable photo. Proper design and use are crucial to photographic success.

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As a photographer is so important to give equal attention to the background. It’s easy to lose track of the background while paying attention to the main object. It’s so important to keep the main subject and background consistent. Styling the background and main subject with a different theme gives an artistic imbalance.

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As a beginner photographer, improving your background skill should be a priority. Don’t matter if you are taking a natural picture; professional picture backgrounds always play the most crucial role. Background can either make or break an image. Some points which help to decide the right background for your photos

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Use of Lighting

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Photography is all about light. Light is the main reason an image can exist. It’s a photograph’s critical factor. In photography, the type of lighting you use is the most crucial element in any image. Your camera can’t record unless there is some light illuminating the subject.

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Light in photography, how the light is artificial or natural and the position of light sources related to light. The position and quality of light can affect the images from clarity to tone, mood and many more. The perfect angle of light in a photo can create a specific effect. By using shadow, we can give a different vibe.

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You will become a stronger photographer because you learn how to harness your light source in the most effective way for any given composition. Understanding the use of artificial or natural lighting in any situation can take you a step forward to improving your skill in photography.

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Types of light 

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1. Natural light

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2. Artificial light

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Natural Light :

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Natural light bounces sunlight towards the camera's subject and ensures they are lit up from the front rather than from the back. The time of the day you are taking can affect the photo's look because the direction of sunlight and shadow changes during the day.

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The main factor that will affect the quality of the picture in natural conditions is outdoor conditions of weather and picture-taking time. Outdoor conditions of weather refer to the sky as cloudy or clear. In a cloudy sky, taking a picture is the same as taking a picture in the shade.

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Artificial Light

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Artificial light is produced via another source, such as a studio strobe, speed light, LED light, your camera’s pop-up flash, or even a streetlight or lamp. Artificial light creates shadows and glare spots. It helps in indoor shooting and ensures that you can create beautiful pictures no matter where you are.

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The most significant advantage is artificial light is control. If you are taking a picture under natural light, you can’t control it, or direct natural light means the sun. But you can shoot all day and all night as much as your energy with the help of artificial light.

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Using Depth of Field

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The depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in the photo that appear acceptably sharp. Controlling the amount of the photo that is a focus is one of the photographer's best tools to help draw the viewer's attention. When you feel your background is messy, you can use the tool.

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Eliminate background Distractions

A distraction in photography is pulling the viewer’s eye away from the main subject and story. To help the viewer connect with your images as intended, you have to minimize the distraction from the scene. There are some tips which can help eliminate the distraction.

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Keep it Simple

The easiest way to avoid distracting background is to remove it. You can put your model on a plain wall. Sometimes you can make the subject fill the entire frame. The background is essential, but that shouldn’t be the only focus; if you want to highlight the subject, you should keep the background as simple as possible.

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Patience

Sometimes photography is all about patience. You can wait for the suitable object to be the right light; that’s like you wait some time for the right background. If you want to shoot an object from a particular location, you can’t focus on street dogs or tourists out of shoot; even the tourist, the moving object, the dogs have to leave the particular location after some time.

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Blur the Background

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Sometimes it’s hard to avoid distraction from the picture; you can blow or blur the distractive objects. Those can be done by widening the aperture or using a lens with an extended focus length which blurs the background with depth of focus.

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Use of Negative Space

Negative space is the clean, minimal part of the image, which is not the central part of the image. This means the subject of the object is positive space, and the rest is negative space.

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Negative space takes more place than positive space or the main subject. It has the effect of making us more curious about the subject. The size difference between the main object and the surrounding medium can isolate the main subject. An object's negative space can portray emotions like loneliness, relaxation, depression, and even importance.

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Negative Space Used for

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1. To make viewer eye on subject

‍Negative space defines the main subject nicely, attracting the viewer’s eye to the main object.

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2. To conveya sense of scale

Using a significant amount of negative space can help portray a sense of isolation, highlighting the subject against the whole background. To give the photo a different look,  we can use some creative ideas by using different tools in  the background.

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3. Paper

‍Paper is an excellent idea that you can use as a background idea. You can use various types of paper. They can be wrapping paper, newspaper, book pages, and many more; if you like some design as background, you can go and print it out on paper and use it.

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Paper in the background gives the photos a classy, elegant vibe, now a trending background on Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. Paper is also an environment-friendly option, so you can use it as much as it doesn’t harm the environment.

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If you want a white background, you can use paper. And using newspapers and pages from the book as background gives retro vibes to the photos. 

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4. Cloth

Cloth and other fabrics make an excellent background for photos. You can use any daily using cloth as the background of photos, like a blanket, bedsheet, curtain, or your daily wear like a hoodie, shirt, t-shirt etc. You can use different colours.

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5. Walls painting

Walls come in so many shapes, colours, and designs. They make some interesting backgrounds for Instagram. Nowadays, if there are some plain walls nearside the street, construction building then artists make painting there, it gives a perfect background for photos. This painting gives photos a different look. If you're passing that kind of painting walls, you should take a few snaps for Instagram.

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6. Paper plates

You can use paper plates as background. You can use the same colour or different colours paper plate also. Not only can you play with the colours, but also you can also place them. You can also place or overlap them randomly on top of each other for a fun and playful look. And you can place them far from each other to look for polka dots.

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7. Fairy light backdrop

If you want to give your photo a magical fairytale vibe, you can use fairy light in the background. It’s so easy and takes a little time to create the background. To create the background, you must drape the fairy lights over a curtain or rod. You can use some fake flowers on top of it if you want.

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8. Craft paper triangles

You can use craft paper as a backdrop if you want some creative background. It’s so easy to arrange craft paper and craft papers are readily available. All you need is craft paper, scissors and tape. You cut the craft paper in a triangle shape and stick them on the wall.

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9. Creased Tin Foil

Tin foil can make a tremendous silvery backdrop. This will make your subject more attractive. It’s different from plain old creased plain paper; Tinfoil gives a shiny effect to the photo. But you should be careful with the light because tin foil reflects light, especially when you use light like studio light. 

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10. Curtain Background

Using a curtain as a backdrop is the most accessible and cheapest way. All you need to do is stretch a curtain away from the window and tape it on the wall. It may not look good from far but looks excellent from a closer view. Once you finish the photo shoot, you just put the curtain back; there is no need for cleaning.

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Conclusion

Choosing the right background will make your portraits stand out, challenge you indifferently and improve your observation skill. This knowledge will positively impact every step of your photography career. The more you experiment with the background you will get a fantastic portrait.

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Backgrounds aren’t the most important thing, and I think you should spend a lot more energy worrying about what you’re going to do to get a great expression that is worrying about background. Now try these above mention tips; you will get maximum results in any location.