When you are taking a photo it’s important to be aware of the foreground and background of the entire scene, and not just the main subject. This is something you hear over and over, especially when you are just starting out as a photographer, but it’s also what can make-or-break your image.

In the two photos above I was using very shallow depth-of-field (a Lensbaby Composer at f/2.8) so I knew that I would have good bokeh and a soft background, but an out-of-focus background won’t always be the only way to get the best image. The photo on the left has several flowers directly behind the main subject – the image isn’t horrible, but in my opinion it looked to cluttered. So I inched over to my left and took a photo of the same flower, but with a slightly different scene directly behind it. The difference is very subtle but produced a better, cleaner image with a background that allowed the subject to pop-out of the frame.

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Sponsored by PMA – It’s not too early to mark your calendar because this is big. For the first time in the USA, the PMA tradeshow and conference will be open to the general public – September 6-11, 2011 in Las Vegas. See you there – http://bit.ly/9yaL2I