Effect of background colour on the appearance of an image

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Peter M. Macdonald
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Effect of background colour on the appearance of an image

Post by Peter M. Macdonald »

I have been playing around with a stacked image of a small pond snail, about 5 mm across. I wanted to display the snail against a uniform background, but what colour to choose? I cut out the snail and then tried a range of 7 different backgrounds, ranging from white through various shades of gray all the way to black.

While the black background seems to offer the best contrast, it seems to distract somewhat from the snail. Also, if looking at a whole series of pictures of different snails, I wonder whether it would become rather overpowering.

All thoughts are welcome.

Peter

White Background
Image

20% Gray Background
Image

35% Gray Background
Image

50% Gray Background
Image

67% Gray Background
Image

80% Gray Background
Image

Black Background
Image

elf
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Post by elf »

It really depends on how the photograph will be used. artistic or scientific. If it's artistic, then use the background to emphasize or de-emphasize colors in the subject. There is no right or wrong or best.

I would say loose the uniform background and use some other materials from the pond as the background. Use the last frame in the stack to set the sharpness of the background by using a smaller aperture.

Chris S.
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Re: Effect of background colour on the appearance of an imag

Post by Chris S. »

Peter M. Macdonald wrote:While the black background seems to offer the best contrast, it seems to distract somewhat from the snail. Also, if looking at a whole series of pictures of different snails, I wonder whether it would become rather overpowering.
I'd go with the 20 percent gray--the choice that to my eye, makes me think about the snail, rather than the photographer's opinion of the snail. For an expository series, identical 20-percent gray backgrounds for all the snails would work well for a wide range of situations.

--Chris

TheLostVertex
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Post by TheLostVertex »

This is a pretty interesting question I think. To me the 20% and the 35% look the most neutral.

However, maybe we should also ask "what is the background for the background?"

We are viewing these images on photomicrography.net, which has a greyish background for the post you made. If the images are to be viewed elsewhere on a pure white background, white might end up being best for the image's background. Or maybe a lighter or darker shade of grey compared to what we would select when viewing them here. Just a thought if you are trying to optimize the image for a particular purpose.

Peter M. Macdonald
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Post by Peter M. Macdonald »

Hi,

Thanks to the three of you for taking the time to think about this and to reply. I had not really thought of this image as having any possibility of artistic merit!

I was thinking about a guide to some of the land and freshwater shells here in Britain. Not a paper publication, just a PDF. Therefore, some degree of uniformity of approach seems sensible. I like a reasonably strong background, but black looks to be too severe to me. However, I am aware that a lot of such material is shown against a black background. My first thought was that I liked the 80% gray quite a lot, but was not convinced by my gut reaction, hence posting this topic. It is interesting that two of you have chosen from the pale end of the spectrum.

As for a white background, the shell tends to look a little out of place against a white page. There is no demarcation of where the illustration ends and the page background begins.

Would be delighted to hear anyone else's views.

Thanks again,

Peter

johan
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Post by johan »

At first glance 80% appealed to me too, but then I thought middle grey might be more sensible (as in middle grey from a middle grey exposure card). But then I finally thought white might be the best, because it would make your layout of your pdf look nicest, ie the ability to have 'white space' round your photos. White space is much appreciated by publishers, Dorling Kindersley was known for great use of it in their books.
My extreme-macro.co.uk site, a learning site. Your comments and input there would be gratefully appreciated.

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

I copied them to layers in PS then shifted transparency until I liked it best. That was between 50% and 66%, RGB each about 108. That's plum in the middle of the histogram for the snail. Coincidence? :smt102

Peter M. Macdonald
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Post by Peter M. Macdonald »

Chris,

Now that is interesting. Here is another one, this time with 58% Gray. This is one of our most widespread and common land snails, Discus rotundatus. It was about 5.4 mm across. The specimen came from my garden.

Image

I will not try everyone's patience with another full set of backgrounds for this one.

Regards,

Peter

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Still looks about right to me. A much flatter histogram on this snail.

I'm curious how often the snail makes those ridges, there's 200+ of them.

enricosavazzi
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Post by enricosavazzi »

I can make a few general comments.

If you are preparing illustrations for scientific publication, either white or black backgrounds are the norm. The main reasons for this are traditional.

One is to make sure the subject has no areas of the same tonality as the background, which would be confusing. Where does the subject end and the background begin? This is a real risk with using any gray shade as background, since traditionally the bulk of scientific illustration is in BW.

The other reason is also traditional, and stems from the difficulty of printing uniform gray surfaces on paper. Sooner or later the inked surface gets dirty with paper fibers, clotted ink and other crud, and the supposedly uniform background becomes dotted with lighter and darker spots. This is very noticeable against a uniform background, but less so against the already mottled surface of many natural subjects.

When it comes to colored backgrounds, they should generally be avoided in scientific illustration. The background color alters our perception of the color of the subject, and this is undesirable in scientific publications.

Publishing in digital format has fewer limitations, but many scientific journals still mandate either black or white backgrounds because this is the way all readers are used to and expect.

If you are not aiming at scientific publication, you have a considerably higher freedom. However, it still pays off to be consistent. If you want to prepare composite illustrations containing several specimens, you must of course use a uniform background across the whole illustration. It is also much safer to use the same background across all photographic illustrations on the same web page or in the same publication.
--ES

Peter M. Macdonald
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Post by Peter M. Macdonald »

Chris,

No idea how fast these things grow, but I cannot imagine that they take more than say 100 days. That would equate to 2 ridges per day. Mind you, these things are very small. This was about 5.4 mm from the tip of the mouth to the far side of the shell.

Enrico,

Thanks for your thoughts. I am not contemplating anything beyond a PDF or a web page, so no need to worry about what printers will do to my backgrounds. Also, all of the illustrations will be in colour, so the shells should still contrast adequately with a uniform background.

Having been involved in the past in editing a journal, I am only too well aware of how badly they can reproduce an even background. We once sent a beautiful composite plate of scanning electron microscope pictures of fossil ostracods off for printing and were shocked to receive 500 copies all with a mottled background with large areas of white. At least the ostracods were quite well reproduced.

I am aware of the fact that the background can impact upon the appearance of the subject. In part, I am thinking of some of the work which Adobe have done on the "ideal" background for working on images in Photoshop. This has resulted in a very dark background in recent editions of PS. However, many users prefer to set a lighter than standard shade of grey. Most that I am aware of prefer to use something above 50% grey, so still have a fairly dark surround to their images. Things can look darker or lighter than they really are because of the viewer's perception of them against different surroundings, hence why I raised this issue.

Best wishes,

Peter

AndrewC
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Post by AndrewC »

Artistic types might suggest you go for a complimentary colour (opposite side of the colour wheel from your subjects primary colour) which in this case would give you something purple with some kind of low key texture. That would look rather odd to me :)

Publishers like Dorling Kindersley like white backgrounds.

It really just depends what you personally want to do with it :)
rgds, Andrew

"Is that an accurate dictionary ? Charlie Eppes

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