The subject of this photo challenge is background contrast. Both Colour and Exposure Contrast. I found this great video by Ejaz Khan, a fashion and wildlife photographer. His background in fashion photography gives him a unique perspective on controlling background for maximum effect. Click here for the video link.
Beyond thinking about background contrast it is important to think about how to achieve background suitability by considering moving either left or right of your subject or using a high or low perspective. The background is probably as important as your subject. Click here for Ejaz Khan’s tips on common composition mistakes and how to fix them. An important consideration is how to measure the light reflecting from your subject and exposing your image just right for your taste. Here is a valuable video by Ejaz Khan on Spot Metering
Bowness lagoon – Snowball Fight. I tried to capture a snowball fight I witnessed by lowering my shutter speed to 1/60 sec. The objective was to show the motion of the snow flakes and the snowball. The exposure is intended to show the subject detail against a very light background. Not sure if I succeeded, there is a lot of distracting detail on the ice
Depth of Field – focus only on the subject Chickadee eating bird seed off of my Spouses hand at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary – winter 2024
Beautiful background contrast. The light brown background complements the skin tone of the hand and the yellow feathers of the bird.
I was standing a bit above this snowy egret when it began to fly, giving me an opportunity to shoot it against the water for a brighter background, allowing darkening of the egret a bit to bring out details. ISO 900 180-600@330mm f/6.3 1/2000s.
Wow! Stunning Brian. The bird’s neck stands out beautifully against the brightest part of the image. Love the partial reflection and the ripples.
Again I was high enough above this black-crowned night heron, a few feet above the water, to have the reflection of a cloudy rainy morning provide a nice contrast to the bird. ISO 8000 600mm f/6.3 1/2000s.
Here is an extreme background contrast image. It was taken against a black backdrop cloth digitally altered to pitch black. The confetti is an overlay that we created ourselves. My wife dropped randomly cut pieces of coloured tissue paper from a tray in front of the black backdrop. It was Crispin’s 7th birthday yesterday.
Great shot Henri … cute the way you caught him with his tongue out. Looks like he may have been into the cat nip (dog nip?).
He got heavily rewarded with “nibs” for sitting still on the mirror.
Early morning photo of an Osprey on the rocks in Cabo San Lucas
golden eye ISO 800 200mm 1/2000 f4.0
Great example of background contrast Della. I love the reflection touching the beak. Nice uniform background.
a female common merganser on the ice. I cleaned up the background and put a radial gradient around it
ISO 200 200mm f5.6 1/400
A simple experiment to show a wide range of background choices ranging from terrible, through possibly useful to hopefully effective.
Nuevo Vallarta Sunset…with horses
Bailey at Grasshopper Hill…Calgary downtown
In Kananaskis, taken with cell phone
Green on black…
f/8.0, 1/60, iso100
This picture was taken at Inglewood just as the bird was flying past me. It was just low enough that it was over the water. I like how the colours of the bird and colours of the water compliment each other.
Wow the clarity is stunning! Love the colours, and sense of flight
Thanks!
I forgot the settings: FL 400mm, S1/640, F 6.3, ISO 320, WB Auto, Matrix Metering
This Swainson’s Hawk was photographed by Irricana. I liked how the background just emphasized the colours of the bird.
I forgot the Settings: FL 400 mm, S 1/1600, F 6.3, ISO 1000, Auto WB, Matrix Metering.
Example of the importance of background in macro photography. Top image was an in-situ shot, the bottom with colour paper behind to remove the messy background. Also shows how a background change can change the look of your subject – there are reflections of the background elements in the shiny cable.
A very obvious example of colour and texture contrast between subject and background.
Nikon D750, 200 mm macro lens, F-29, 1/8 sec, ISO 160
Walking the dog in Beddington saw the sun on the leaves and the background valley in shadow.
This is an old photo I took back in 2014 in the Irricana area.
I thought it was a good example of contrasting backgrounds.
First daylight outing with my new R7 Canon Mirrorless camera. I just used “program” to see what settings to use for a cloudy day. This was F4, 1/125 sec and ISO 100. This is an art installation at Riverbend Park in Red Deer. The background is always busy in any season. This is the result of removing the background and finding a complimentary color to enhance the metal works. The original is in the reply. Completely different effect.
Here is the original.