Backgrounds for Flower Close Ups

[nightshade]

Looking at some orchid photos I had taken, the ones that were good had fussy backgrounds.
Options; Shears or a plain back ground. I looked around the garage and came up with some grey cobwebby underlay (used for under vinyl flooring).
I tried it it worked well. I painted it (using matt matchpots) a grass green, off-white, sky blue. Super. I mounted it by stapleing the ends of a 1mtr. long strip x 50cm to some sharpened 6cm doweling initialy but sewing in long pockets so it could be slid up and down the dowels, that worked better on uneven ground. Well there you are for what its worth.

[The Woodman]

Re fussy backgrounds - I noted comments on the subject on another thread.

Your method sounds useful for reference shots but inclusion of determinable species in the background adds to the vegetation/habitat knowledge sometimes.

[Wizmatt]

I've found that using a long focal length (300mm +) that compresses the foreground and background gives nice diffused backgrounds when photographing flowers.

[Alan Hewitt]

I did some flower shots a while ago in my conservatory. I created a background by taking an out of focus blurry photograph of my green hedge and printing it out A3 on a matte paper (to avoid reflections!). A4 would do too of course. I then glued it to a piece of card and used this as a backdrop.

[nightshade]

Now that is a useful idea, Alan

[Kayleigh]

My hubby makes amps and had some acoustic speaker cloth in the garage.
Used a small piece pegging it to whatever was close this works very well any black fabric would do and its portable..
Here are a couple of examples..

[Alan Hewitt]

Originally Posted by nightshade

Now that is a useful idea, Alan

Surprisingly effective too.

I'll get around to putting the photos on my website and I'll post the link!