“How do you pick your backgrounds?” This question came in an email after a person saw my Instagram post yesterday. At first, I laughed to myself and then thought, this is a really good question. Picking backgrounds is essential as visual storytellers, it is how we set the stage for our subject to perform on. But the word “picking” leads one to think we have complete control over the background. In some cases, like shooting portraits and in the studio, we can and should meticulously pick that background. When shooting static aircraft, I at times have the ability to pick that best background. But the majority of the time in my photography, the background is a fluid element as the subject is moving. In that case, what do you do?
There are actually many options but they all rely on YOUR seeing the background in the first place. In these two photographic examples, I kept them in my files to specifically talk about when backgrounds don’t work. The top photo, the bright spot, top right, pulls the eye away from the subject. The mind’s eye goes to light and bright first and when it’s at the top of the frame, it’s a strong visual magnet. And what can I say about the bottom photo. It’s a bitch sometimes working with ‘cous, especially when they have a stick up their butt (200-400 w/ TC-14eIII)! How do you solve these issues? The most common answer for folks is Photoshop but in the top photo, Photoshop was used and that’s as good as it gets. In the bottom photo, well I simply don’t use Photoshop on my critters so that’s that. What other options do you have? In the top image that was shot with a 70-200, going longer would have cropped out that top corner but then, the size of the wall in Monument Valley would have been diminished hurting the story IMHO. Going longer with the Moose would have made that stick even bigger, not good. In both cases, just waiting for the subject to move, the ballon left and the moose right solved the problem. This only works though when you recognize the problem to start with. And then there is the last option which I use a lot, just don’t take the photograph. In this we are picking by simply not picking to shoot. So in the end then, perhaps we do have control in picking backgrounds.