Paul Jolly Photography Chapter 20

Curved backgrounds

Backgrounds are important to any photograph but when shooting a person or object standing on the ground or a surface the junction between wall and floor or the back of the surface produces a line across the photograph. As this is a shadowed affect it is almost impossible to light evenly.

By curving the background, as seen above in side view, illumination can easily be added to illuminate the background with a constant level of light.
This method also works well when a photograph has been printed in large format and used as a background especially so when there is a flat foreground and rising foliage to the rear.

Above: The patterned background is curved and does not distract from the subject.
Below: The background has a hard corner and can be distracting, the background is the same material throughout. However In this case the hardness of the rock is enhanced by using a hard corner.
Chose your background to match the subjects needs.