Background Patterns

My challenge this week is a difficult one. How to photograph a subject using a background which is a pattern without distracting from the subject. I used several photos from my archives because the weather has been so awful this year I have not yet managed to get outdoors to do any photography. In hindsight I might have thought of using patterns within the home such as cushions or blankets, but I’m not much of an indoor photographer. Another skill I need to practice!

My post is generating a lot of interesting comments and I am fully appreciative of each and every one of them, as it is my intention this year to examine the way I take photos and how to improve them. And it is by having other people look at my photos and point out the ‘mistakes’ or ‘flaws’ that will help me to improve. My aim is to take less, but better, photographs instead of the too many snapshots that I am in the habit of doing. So I need all the help I can get to iron out those things that stop a good photo from being a great photo.

One of my images was a sculpture (Adam) at the Eden Project with one of the biomes behind it, which I felt worked reasonably well, until it was pointed out that perhaps the patterned background could be bigger, so I looked for a different view to see if it works better. This is all I could come up with where I have the same sculpture in the scene. As you can observe there is a lot of foliage around, this is taken outside of course, and the landscape is very much used to grow plants and trees. I’m interested to see what you think of this one. Or does making the pattern more dominant decrease the importance of the subject?

The assignment: Use pattern as a background for a more substantial subject.