Do you have a distracting portrait background? Five accessories to draw attention to your subject

As part of their “Photographing the Bride” workshop, SLR Lounge has detailed five accessories you can use to counteract a distracting background. These are five items any wedding or portrait photographer can have on hand to make sure your perfect shot isn’t ruined by a distracting background.

When shooting wedding photography in particular, the bride might have the perfect item herself, the veil. Have an assistant hold the veil off-frame and use the pulled fabric to create a leading line. It might take a few attempts to get the composition correct, but it’s a great way to use what you have to create a distinct composition and block out potentially distracting elements in the frame. A veil has other uses in wedding photography, which you can check out here.

A second accessory, useful for any type of portraiture, is an LED light string. You can position the lights in different areas to change how they interact with the lens and your subject(s); there are many creative possibilities here. You can also change your aperture to affect the bokeh. For ideas of how to use LED light strings in portraiture, watch the video from Adorama’s “Exploring Photography” series with Mark Wallace below.

When you want to eliminate more than a small part of the frame, you might need something like a rhinestone sheet. By shooting through a folded rhinestone sheet, you can fill much of the frame with the shiny pattern and interesting refracted light.

To see the other two accessories for dealing with distracting backgrounds in portraiture, see the full article at SLR Lounge. There are sample shots in the article as well, so be sure to check it out.

(Via SLR Lounge)