7 Best Portrait Backgrounds In Photography To Choose From

Updated on January 27, 2023 in Photography by Alifiya Mustafa

Portrait photography is one of the most common and skillful styles of photography. A good portrait must focus on the subject and convey its emotions in a natural way.

However, you should not neglect the portrait background in photography to make your portraits stand out and eye-catching.

What is a good background for a portrait?

A white background is the best background for a portrait. However, there are many more portrait photography backgrounds that you can use for capturing exceptional portrait images like a solid color, textured, bokeh, busy, or black background.

7 Best Portrait Backgrounds In Photography

1. Clean white background

A clean white background is the perfect portrait background. It gives a neat and consistent look to your portrait images. The white background also ensures that all the focus is put only on the subject.

When doing white background photography, it’s very important to take care of the lighting. Bad lighting can make your background appear yellowish or filthy.

Also, if your subject is wearing white, the white-on-white background must look distinctive. Thus, the use of light must be smart and optimum.

2. Solid color background

A solid color is another great choice for the portrait background. I’d suggest that you pick the colors based on the mood you want to set with your portrait. It must go well with the expressions of your model.

For happy, energetic, and fun moods, use bright colors like orange or yellow. For a serious or sad look, go for grey or other dark and dull shades. Similarly, more loyal or expensive looks may go well with champagne red, emerald green, or royal blue.

Using solid colors enhances the feel, sets the mood, and most importantly, does not include any distractions.

3. Textured background

Textured backgrounds are fun and creative portrait backgrounds in photography. You can use bed sheets, curtains, sating clothes, sacks, rusted metal sheets, or textured background papers to create a textured portrait photography background.

Textures create an element of something unique and different in a portrait and the use of DIY background makes your portraits stand out.

4. Blurred and bokeh background

Blurring a background is a great way to utilize any setting and still be able to eliminate any distractions to put focus on the subject. To create a bokeh effect, simply add the lights and blur the focus from the backgrounds.

Using the bokeh effect contributes to the feel of the portrait. With this portrait background, the image becomes more attractive and puts an amplifying effect on the viewers.

5. In The Nature background

The “In The Nature” backgrounds are outdoor backgrounds. You can use any outdoor setting that has nature.

You can capture portraits with the mountains in the background, the sunset, the trees, or the ocean. Such portraits look very pleasing, calm, and peaceful.

These can be used for fashion portraits or lifestyle portraits that can be posted on social media or in the editorials.

6. A busy background

A busy background can be anywhere – in the house, on the streets, or even at a fair. It’s just about having something going on in the background. There are people and places in the background while the subject remains the focus throughout.

They look wonderful and are generally captured for personal use. However, such backgrounds also look very unique and eccentric when used in fashion photography.

It builds the contrast by leaving behind the typical “studio photography” for fashion and makeup shoots and makes you look more creative and an out-of-the-box thinker. You can dress your model in high fashion and take her to the streets. The look of the luxurious fashion, when intended to be in a contradicting setting makes it more appealing.

7. Black background

Contrary to the white background for photography, black background is another most popular portrait background. It is the perfect choice for when you want to switch from a light to a dark or more intense mood.

The black background adds a more dramatic and dreamy feel to the portrait that instantly catches the eyes of the viewers. It is mostly intended to convey a more powerful and intense message.

Many professional photographers also use it to add royalness to the images such as diamond jewelry photography or for high-end fashion mood boards

Bonus Read

Choosing the right background for portrait photography can be hard. The more you explore, the more it gets messy.

So, stick to these best portrait photography backgrounds that will never fail you. These full-proof portrait backgrounds are best for portfolio, eCommerce photography, magazine shoots, social posts, and every other setting.

Did you know that backgrounds can be added, removed, cleaned, or replaced seamlessly during post-production?

PixelPhant’s professional background removal service can help you remove the background from any image – complex or simple, add another background, and more while keeping the shadows the way you want. Try it for free👇.

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