Do you notice anything unusual in the both the pictures. In the picture 1, the dragonfly and the background are of the same color due to which the dragonfly looks part of background and is less visible. In the picture 2, the red dragonfly is more prominently visible due to its color being prominent than the background.
The background plays a very important role in photography. The background can highlight the subject and if not considered appropriately can also make the subject less prominent. In short, it can make or break a picture.
The following are some of the importanct aspects to be considered while taking a picture:
1. Consciousness: The most fundamental aspect to get a better picture is that one should be conscious of the background equally as the subject.
2. Bokeh : Once can use bokeh to blur the background and keep focus on the subject. This usually requires using wide Aperture to Blur Backgrounds (the thumb rule is that smaller the F stop number the wider the aperture). For a 50 mm prime lens, once can use F/1.8 aperture to get blurry background. You can use Aperture priority mode and set the required aperture and let the camera take care of Shutter speed and ISO.
3. Another aspect to be kept in mind is to increase the distance between the subject and background. This helps the camera focus more on the subject.
4. Using viewfinder: Another aspect when using a DSLR is to use the view finder and see if the focus is on subject.In DSLR you can see the light which helps in knowing if the subject is in focus or not. This also ensures that DLSR is close to you and avoids camera shake.
5. Cropping : Cropping is another option to get rid of the distractions in the picture.
Of course, using photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop is also an option which is used by professional photographers to take care of the distractions in the background.
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