Defused background

[FUDGEY]

I've been told to try if possible to pick a defused background when photographing, what's the reason for this? I bet you'd are sick to the back teeth of me now lol sorry.

[Tobyh]

Hey Fudgey,

Ask away, that's what forums are for - just don't forget to search also as a wealth of information already exists on the site.

A Diffused background (I refer to it as "clean") looks much better in many cases and allows your main point of interest to really stand out. It's better in my opinion to have a lovely clean background rather than lots of twigs / leaves etc that either detract from the picture or just move the eye away from the point(s) of interest.

As you gain more experience you will no doubt see the opportunities for this and look for it automatically - as an example - althought this first shot is a good shot, I personally feel that the leaves do detract a little and if it was possible I would have gone for a cleaner shot -


However on this one, because of it's location I was able to keep low down and get a better background as the perch was higher than the surrounding area and the closest trees were around 10 feet away -


Using a wider aperture does help this but then you need to ensure that your subject is fully in focus also which isn't always possible. Often just getting the subject in the right place is the key.

One thing to remember though - it's no hard fast rule - you may want to show some background detail to give a sense of environment for example.

I thought of another point - it's better to get a shot regardless of the background than to not take the picture at all!


TobyH

[Lancashire Lad]

This is a subjective issue.

My reasons for wanting a diffused background on most of my shots are because I take photos of wild flowers, and I want the flower head to stand out from the background. I also want that background to be as unintrusive as possible, and the best way to achieve that, is generally by using a wider aperture, thus resulting in less depth of field, throwing the background out of focus.

Although with macro shots, (even with a very narrow apertures of f22 and above), the background can still be well and truly out of focus, if it is more than a few metres, (and sometimes only a few centimetres), behind the subject.

Typical examples - background completely out of focus.


Typical examples - background semi-out of focus.


Typical examples - background not sufficiently out of focus (and intrusive - detracting from the image).


As you can see, it's a subjective issue, but for many of the photos I take, the more blurred the background, the better I like it.

Regards,
Mike.

[ron1863]

There are times though when having virtually everything in the shot in focus is beneficial, especially when shooting unidentified fungi, as the surrounding vegetation can assist in identification.

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by ron1863

There are times though when having virtually everything in the shot in focus is beneficial, especially when shooting unidentified fungi, as the surrounding vegetation can assist in identification.

Completely agreed Ron. - My comments above relate to those shots when I'm trying to get a "portrait" of a specific (known) subject, or an "arty" type shot, rather than maybe a record shot for when I'm looking for an ID, or a shot intended to be a definitive record of the subject in its natural habitat/environment.

Regards,
Mike.