Don't Distract

A good background for a portrait can be almost anywhere. I've heard people say that the way to spot a good background is it's one that you would photograph by itself. Personally, I disagree with that. Backgrounds like that, in my opinion, tend to distract rather than enhance.

You don't necessarily have to find flowers or a waterfall or something beautiful. Color, contrast and texture are all things that I look for. My tendency is to look for things that don't distract from the subject of the portrait. After all, you want the attention drawn to the subject, not the background. 

One technique I like to use is to throw the background out of focus. I'll shoot wide open (the lowest f-stop my lens is capable of), and focus in on the subject. Depending on my aperture setting and focal length, the background will more or less be out of focus. 

The picture above was taken at an aperture setting of f4. Locals may recognize this as the amphitheater located at the Heard Museum here in McKinney.  The background is out of focus, but not completely obliterated like this one:

This background could be anywhere. It happens to be Disney World, but you'd never know. There's a good chance that if it were in focus it would distract too much from the subject.