Simplicity and background

Learning goal

You will be able to see the background as a part of the photo with equal weight to the subject. You will notice before shooting mergers such as a pole growing out of the subject's head, a horizon cutting through the neck or a line touching its edge; you will fix them by sliding to the side, changing your height, moving the subject away from the background, or choosing the background first and bringing the subject in afterward, and you will check whether there is enough tonal separation between skin tone and background.

The question

Looking through your photos after a holiday, you stop at one frame. Your mother is smiling, the light is soft, the moment is warm. But right out of the middle of your mother's head rises an electricity pole from behind; it is as if an antenna has been fitted to her head. You never saw it while shooting. Now, every time you look at the photo, the first thing you see is that pole.

How do you avoid the pole growing out of a head? The answer is usually not in a camera setting but in your feet: one step to the side. In this lesson we will talk about why the background is missed so easily, the most common clashes between subject and background, and simple ways to fix them before shooting.

Context

In Lesson 6.2 you chose the hero, sorted out its rivals, and we said we would come back to the details of this cleanup later. Then you placed it on a crossing point in the frame, or in the middle knowingly. Now we look behind that same hero. In a photo the subject and the background look like separate layers, but a photo is a flat surface: a pole standing meters away in the three-dimensional world sticks to the head in the two-dimensional frame.

In Lesson 2.2 you looked for distractions at the edges of the frame. This lesson turns your gaze from the edge to the area right around the subject, to the border where the hero's silhouette ends. The problem usually appears there, where the subject and the background touch each other. Simplicity doesn't mean an empty background; it means nothing that doesn't serve the subject entering the frame.

Simple explanation

Why is the background missed?

At the moment of shooting, the eye locks onto the hero. While looking at a face, the brain separates that face from its surroundings and wipes out everything behind like an unimportant curtain. Because you have two eyes, you also perceive depth in the real world: the pole is behind, your mother is in front. A camera records with one eye and onto a flat surface. That sense of depth is lost, and the pole is now on the same plane as your mother's head.

That is why the background becomes visible not while shooting but when you look at the photo afterward. The solution is to deliberately take your gaze off the subject and send it to the back before you press the shutter button. Take a tour around the subject's head, shoulders and hands and ask yourself: is there anything touching the subject's edge, growing out of it or cutting it? This habit of a few seconds catches most of the common background mistakes before shooting.

What are the most common clashes?

A clash in which the subject and the background touch each other is called a merger. The most familiar is a pole, a tree trunk or a lamppost growing out of the top of the head. A horizon line or the top edge of a wall running right at neck level looks as if it is separating the head from the body. If the edge of a roof behind runs at ear level, it looks as if a line has been stuck into the person's head.

A sneakier clash is the tangent: two lines or two shapes just touching each other. A shoulder touching a door frame exactly, the peak of a hill sticking to the top edge of the frame, a hand ending on the same line as the edge of a table are like this. A tangent catches the eye at the place where the two shapes meet and makes it read things that should be separate as a single shape. The solution is almost always the same: either overlap the shapes clearly or leave a clear gap between them.

How do you clean up the background?

The most effective tool is again your feet. When you slide a step to the left or right, the subject stays in place but everything behind it shifts in the frame; the pole moves next to the head. Changing your height also changes the background. When you crouch, the sky or distant trees come behind the subject; when you rise a little and look down, the background becomes grass, paving stones or the sea.

Moving the subject away from the background also simplifies it. When you call a person standing at the foot of a wall three or four steps forward, the wall both separates from them in light and looks softer; you will see the physics of this softening in the depth of field lesson. Your phone's portrait mode also blurs the background, but as you saw in Lesson 4.5, it can leave traces at the hair and edges; choosing a clean background is always more reliable. Sometimes the easiest way is to reverse the order, background first: find a simple background, for example a dark door, a plain wall or a mass of trees in shade, then bring the subject in front of it.

When choosing a background, take skin tone into account too. If there isn't enough tonal separation between the face and the background, the face merges into the background. A dark-skinned face can lose its edges in front of dark leaves in shade; a mid-toned wall or a background that is bright but not glaring brings the face forward. Light skin, on the other hand, can fade in front of a cream-colored wall; a darker background brings the separation back. The color of the background also reflects onto the face: on a face photographed at the foot of sunny grass or a wall painted green, a slight green tone can appear, and this spoils the natural color on every skin tone.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing a father and his little daughter sitting side by side on a bench in a park. First you shoot without moving at all from where you arrived. The trunk of a plane tree behind rises right out of the middle of the girl's head; the top edge of the fence behind runs at the level of the father's ears. On the left edge there is a bright red rubbish bin, and at the back of the frame a stranger looking at their phone. The father's dark skin has merged with the bushes in shade behind him; the edge of his face blends into the darkness.

Then you slide a step to the left and crouch a little. The plane tree is now behind the girl's shoulder, a soft vertical line toward the edge of the frame. The fence has dropped and stays below the shoulders. The rubbish bin has left the frame. You ask the father and daughter to pull the bench two steps forward; behind them, in the distance, is a light green meadow the sun is shining on. The father's face stands out clearly in front of this bright but not glaring background, and the girl's light-colored hair falls against a shaded clump of trees behind. The same two people, the same bench, the same minute; the photo now speaks only about them.

Common mistakes

Summary

The background is a part of the photo equal to the subject; because the camera flattens depth, a pole behind sticks to the head, and clashes not noticed while shooting become the first thing you see afterward. Checking around the subject's silhouette and sliding a step to the side, changing your height, moving the subject away from the background or choosing a simple background first, and leaving enough tonal separation between face and background, builds simplicity at the moment of shooting.

Mini assignment

In the "30 Photos in 30 Days" project, day four is given to the background.

1. Photograph a friend or a family member once where they are, without looking at the background at all.
2. Look at the photo and write in a list everything growing out of the subject's head, cutting their neck or touching their edge.
3. Take a new frame that solves every problem on the list by sliding to the side, crouching or rising.
4. Move the person a few steps away from the background and take one last frame, bringing their face in front of a background with a clear difference in tone from their skin.

Check yourself

• In the last frame, is there anything left touching the subject's silhouette, growing out of it or cutting it?
• Were you able to solve the problems not with a setting but by changing your position?
• Does the face stand out clearly from the background, or do its edges blend into the background?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Why does a pole meters behind stick to the subject's head in a photo?

• A) Because the camera enlarges things behind
• B) Because a photo reduces depth to a flat surface
• C) Because the pole is always brighter than the subject
• D) Because the screen is very small

2. What is the fastest way to get rid of a pole growing out of the top of a head?

• A) Sliding a step to the side
• B) Sharpening the photo afterward
• C) Zooming in more
• D) Turning on the flash

3. A shoulder touching a door frame exactly is an example of which clash?

• A) Lead room
• B) Counterweight
• C) Tangent
• D) Off-frame space

4. If a dark-skinned face is losing its edges in front of dark leaves in shade, what can you do?

• A) Look for an even darker background
• B) Put the person inside the leaves
• C) Expose the photo darker
• D) Bring the face in front of a mid-toned background or one that is bright but not glaring

Answers

1. B — The eye perceives depth with two eyes, the camera records with one eye and onto a flat surface; that is why the pole behind falls on the same plane as the head.
2. A — When you slide to the side, the subject stays in place but everything behind it shifts in the frame, and the pole moves next to the head.
3. C — Two shapes just touching each other is a tangent; the eye catches on the meeting point and reads two separate things as a single shape.
4. D — Tonal separation is needed between face and background; a dark face regains its edges in front of a mid-toned or bright background.

Summary card

• A photo is flat: the pole behind sticks to the head.
• Before pressing, take a tour around the subject's silhouette.
• Solve mergers and tangents by sliding a step to the side or crouching.
• Move the subject away from the background; if needed, choose the background first.
• Leave a difference in tone between face and background; watch out for colored surfaces reflecting.

Bridge to the next lesson

You have cleaned up the background, and your hero now stands on its own. But one decision still hasn't been made: will you hold your phone upright or turn it sideways? The same scene tells one story in a horizontal rectangle and another in a vertical one. The next lesson talks about how a horizontal frame carries a sense of width and spread, and a vertical frame a sense of height and focus.