Oh ya, backgrounds really do matter and more often then not, are a big part of the visual storytelling. The way I think of it in my head is, the subject is the star and the rest of the photograph is the stage in which it performs on. Sure, you can go to a one star performance who stands on a bare stage and be totally entertained. But when you think about theater, that is the exception and not the rule. So setting that stage means we carefully look at that background so it supports our star, the subject, and doesn’t distract from it. It supports the story being told rather than starting a second conversation. This is a very simple example of what I’m talking about.
Shot just moments apart, the P-40K “Aleutian Tiger” from Texas Flying Legends danced in about out of the clouds. Well, that’s what it looks like in the photograph. When I told the pilot I loved the photos of him in the clouds, he quickly said, “I didn’t fly in any clouds!” When I showed him the photos, he smiled because he knew Moose was doing a Moose. That means, shooting with the D4s / 70-200f4, I used the lens to select the background I wanted to tell the story even if in the real world, the P-40 was no in the clouds. In this case, the clouds brings a totally different sense to the flight compared to seeing the earth. And that difference is what backgrounds are so important. So when framing up your photo no matter the subject, give that star a stage to perform on and your photo will reach its audience!