Work with backgrounds
Control detail and colour behind your subject, as this can make or break your macro shots
Detailed not distracting The aim with any macro background is to offer a natural context, with true to life detail, without unwanted shapes and colours interfering with the subject – challenging in confined environments
© Saleheh Soleimani
It’s surprisingly easy to overlook the background of a macro shot. We tend to associate macro with super-shallow depth of field, meaning we expect the background to be significantly out of focus in most images we shoot. This can lead to a clumsiness when composing our images, with little attention paid to what is happening behind the subject. This is a fatal error – if anything, the background plays an even more critical role in the success of a close-up image than in other photographic genres.