a1 Photo Tips

In this Photo Tip I talk about the very common problem with backgrounds. And what is the problem with them? Well, they are often distracting, annoying or just boring. I’m not going to show any such examples here, it would be too boring - I’m sure you have seen 100’s of those pictures and know what I mean. One classic example is when you have made a nice photo of a person outdoors, and afterwards you find out it looks as if a tree or a utility pole is growing out of their head!

Why do these things happen? Because you got caught up in studying your main subject (the person), and forgot to pay attention to the backdrop.

Remedy: pay very close attention to what the background looks like, and apply one or more of the methods for background management, such as:

1. Background blur

As in the picture here, put your subject out in the open and make sure there is a considerable distance to the background. Then the backdrop will likely be out of focus and not distracting.

In this example with the girl rejoicing in the park, the grass and trees behind her do add important information to the image without being too dominating. The background tells us why the girl seems so happy: she is out in the sun, in a nature setting. You can almost feel the fresh air!

Imagine the same photograph but with a grey concrete wall as backdrop. Would it feel as convincing? Probably NOT, in my opinion.

You can control the amount of background blurriness in some ways, like: a) changing the aperture of the lens, and b) zooming in/zooming out.

a) aperture: a large aperture means the depth of field is small. It is then rather easy to focus on the main subject and let all else become blurred. This is also convenient in the sense that you can then use a faster shutter speed and thereby lower the risk of getting the whole picture un-sharp because of camera shake!

b) zoom in/out: you can influence the background blur by using the zoom function also. Generally, using a longer focal length, ie. zooming in, will make the depth of field shorter so the background gets blurrier. The effect is not a strong one (since you now need to go further away from your subject than when using a short focal length) but is worth testing.

2. Integrate the Background!

In this photo of a chef in a restaurant, with him standing in front of his kichen range and utensils, the background is really an integrated part of the picture. The photograph would lose much of its meaning without it.

Note that the backdrop is only slightly out of focus - in this case it is important to show what it looks like. Yet it is not overpowering, since the chef’s face and white clothing clearly offset him from the subdued bluish-grey backdrop color.

The trick here is to strike a delicate balance between how much “power” you give to the main subject - in this case the chef - and the background - his working environment.

3. Move the Subject! - An obvious tip. Example: when looking in the viewfinder of the camera, you notice that it appears like a tree is growing up from the head of the person you are taking that nice picture of… Then just ask the person to move to either side, and notice what the scene looks like now when you check it out.

4. Move the Camera! - Another obvious tip. Example: You are making a nice picture of something unmoveable, like a statue in a park. You notice there is a tree behind the statue, making it look like it is growing out of the statue’s head… OK, you get the idea!

5. Change the Angle! This photo tip ties in with a previous article I wrote, about how changing to a different camera angle, like lowering or raising the camera, has a major effect on the result. Here we are interested in what happens with the background, as opposed to the main subject.

Example: In some cases, you may want to make a picture of something and the surrounding area is a total mess. You can then see if you can use the sky as a backdrop, by lowering the camera to more or less ground level.

The picture here shows how I did it in the case of a bronze statue in a public park. The only way I could get an unintrusive background was to lower the camera and use the overcast sky as backdrop for the sculpture.

This way I could avoid including the large trees and buildings that surrounded the object of interest.

6. Provide Your Own Background! Hardly doable with things such as the statue above, which was about twice life-size, but very handy when you snap pictures of little things like flowers and such. You can use a piece of cardboard with a neutral color to provide a non-distracting backdrop for your main subject.

Getting the background right is an extremely important thing to consider if you ever want to make great photographs. Hopefully you have gotten some help from the photo tips about that subject here.

Ever given a thought to how a picture changes just by you lowering or jacking up the camera position? Such a simple change can have a huge impact on the result. If you give some creative thought to the angle you choose when snapping your picture, the result will be so much more fun to watch!

This works in a couple of ways, but let us consider the effect on the main subject of interest here. (It is also likely to affect the appearance of the background in major ways, more on that in another photo tip.)

Here I made a picture of a pretty but poisonous plant: the red baneberry (Actaea rubra). First I somewhat lazily held the camera at waist level, and since the plant is much shorter than me it was then shown from above.

Then I looked at the result and felt it was a bit dull, although it does show the fruit and the leaves OK, and the background is neutral. However, the image feels kind of flat - almost like a pattern on a wallpaper.

Next, I lowered the camera to almost ground level - only some cm. (a few inches) above the ground, and made the second image. Here, I like the result much more! The three-dimensional shape of the fruit cluster now stands out, and you feel a much stronger presence.

Everything else is the same. It is the same fruit cluster, similar distance, and the same light conditions. But by lowering the camera I changed the viewing angle radically.

So - get out of your comfort zone! Test unexpected camera positions, even if it means having to kneel on the ground, or climb up on something to get a birds-eye view.

The famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams took many of his best pictures from - the roof of his car! He had a special camera platform up there, and from that vantage point he found a more interesting angle on his landscapes than from the ground.

I must admit that it sure helps if you, like me, happen to have a digicam with an electronic viewfinder which can be rotated in almost any direction - like my old Canon Powershot G2. This type of viewfinder is not very common nowadays, I am not even sure if the latest Canon Powershot camera models still come with this very handy feature.

Now another example: how the appearance of objects is changed by snapping the picture from different angles.

This ornate urn is on display in a public garden in my home town. The first picture I made of that urn was taken from my most convenient level - eye level. You can see how the urn is shown as narrowing toward the top, when in fact that part is perfectly cylindrical. Also the beautiful flower arrangement in the mouth of the urn doesn’t show so well.

By raising the camera high above my head, I was able to get it at about the same height as the urn. Therefore its shape is now more realistically rendered, and the flowers show better. (There is only a minute or so between these two exposures, but in that short time span the light changed; it became more overcast and therefore the relief decorations and the Satyr’s head show less well since the light is now softer.)

I hope these modest examples of changing the camera level will get your creative juices flowing!