Photographing the Subject(s) with the Right Background

When taking a photo, it's easy to get caught up in concentrating on how the subject looks, leading us to forget about the objects in the background. A badly orchestrated background can easily ruin an otherwise beautifully organized photo. If you have a protruding object coming out from the top of someone's head, or it looks like a little person is on the subject's shoulder due to a person being in the background, it takes away from effective photography.

Photographers can't always remember every detail. However, If you spend too much time trying to organize everything, you risk the chance of losing the "in the moment" shots - especially with wedding and couple's photography. Genuine expressions and fun moments can't be planned, and candid photos make for the best photos. That being said, there's a trick to working with busy backgrounds.

If you lower the aperture to a smaller number, the lens gets wider, allows more light in, and also reduces the focus of what's in the background. You can have a lot of people in the background, but if open your lens, you turn them into a blur, the clear subjects then are no longer competing for clarity from a busy background.

This technique also can bring some very comfortable looking photos - photos which bring more of an intimacy to them. If you blur out the background, it creates both a crisp feel from the subjects but also is complimented with a softer feel from the blurriness the background creates. The less you have to worry about the background, the more focus you can spend on the subjects.

Sometimes it's nice to have a clear background to add some depth to the photo. Other times it looks better to create a soft haziness for the background. Take a series of photos while changing the aperture each time and you can become more familiar with different styles and the benefits that come from an increase or decrease in the aperture value~