From the course: Learning Portrait Photography
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Importance and impact of backgrounds
From the course: Learning Portrait Photography
Importance and impact of backgrounds
- Once we've got soft directional light shining on a person for a portrait, the difference between a great picture and kind of a snapshot is the background. It can be totally distracting and ruin a photograph or it can enhance the photograph and help us focus on our portrait subject. So let's talk about a few tips to help you find the right spot and minimize the distractions. So what makes a good background? Anytime something is fairly plain, it's a pretty safe background. A white wall, that's okay. However, we can also use the environment around a person to enhance the subject and give place to the portrait. Showing the environment shows us where a person is. Especially if this is an environmental portrait, we should include tools or area that help us know who a person is. Or, we might just use an area as a compliment to a person in the photograph. We might use patterns like windows in a repeating line going away in the background. Those things can help us focus on the person because…
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