It worked! Thank you for that very helpful tip, James!

you are most @GrammaChar

the eraser and the paint bucket, eh?
It is striking James, but, I'm personally not a fan of the artifacts at the edges and I like the original better, not that that counts for anything though.

Char, you got a great result with your black paper!
and I've been wondering...how did you do your frog?

@dirtdorphins

yep ...eraser & paint bucket ...and, did I mention "several hours" worth of time ?

have a few other eraser & paint bucket ....they were done in days, not hours....but they have nothing to do with plants ..

Ah, yes, the frog. Not black paper.

I knew I needed to quickly rescue this little Leopard Frog when I saw him struggling in the pool. He would have drowned without help. So I took off a pair of black shorts, laid them on the deck to keep them dry, and jumped in wearing my underwear. Once I was able to capture the cutie, he was pretty worn out from treading water. I placed him on the shorts to let him catch his breath and ran to get the camera. In return, he politely posed for a photo shoot as a way of saying thank you for my life-saving action.

I guess I could have used the net..... but then I wouldn't have gotten the photo.

Probably TMI, but you asked!

what a story! highlight of my day really--Thank you Char

We're getting off topic here, but had to share another critter that I didn't jump in to rescue!
This time I did use the net to guide her to the steps.



Okay - back to backgrounds!

They (county gov.) don't make you put a tall fence around your swimming pool?

There was a fence. Just can't see it in the photo. Problem is that the deer could jump right over it. After this incident, I had the old fence replaced with an 8 ft. deer-proof fence. No more uninvited swimmers. And it makes it nicer to garden because I don't have to restrict myself to deer-proof plants!

In order to get this thread back on track...

Spiders:
Backgrounds can be used to highlight a subject,



at other times to provide atmosphere,



and occasionally the background turns out to be more interesting than the foreground.

Not an entry (it's April now), but wanted to say you don't need a dark background to get a dark background in an image. Your subject just needs to be brighter.


This photo was taken in the sun on a sunny day. There was still plenty of light in the shade (background).

Rick @Leftwood , the contest runs until May 31 - so show us some more!!!

Oh! Thanks Char!

Well, how about the opposite..... a bright background. I will enter the second pic here, as the backlit background does exactly what I want: to show off the embryos and structure in the seeds.



Olympus OM-D E-M10M2, 60mm (120mm full frame) macro lens

Very neat, Rick!

That second photo is incredible! Such hidden wonders your photography revealed!

Awesome!

The advantages of pot culture include being able to choose differing backgrounds. A solid color would have made this photo very flat, but the soft variable hues provide a lot of depth, IMO. And in this case, the extra color enhances the pic, I think.



Had I used the same background with the same subject below, it would have been lost. I needed something that could bring out the subtle colors of the Pulsatilla and allow the plant structure to dominate, but I didn't want a solid color background. In retrospect, I think some paper with a bit more texture in it might have been better.




Olympus OM-D E-M10M2, 60mm (120mm full frame) macro lens

oooh--Nice job with the fuzzies Rick!

and all very good examples of your points

Just bumping this thread...

As some of you know, my passion is photographing butterflies. Usually I try to keep the focus on the subject,



but occasionally the background provides a natural setting for a habitat view.



Just wondering if I should have cropped the out-of-focus blooms on the right......