We often focus on the foreground much more than the background, which is intuitively the focal point of most photographs.  This is not intended to the professional photographers, but for my fellow readers who are “slightly” more novice in their photography experience.  I have come to realize that playing with the backgrounds can provide some dramatic perspectives.  It is not just about being artistic and doing things for the sake of experimentation.  Playing with backgrounds can significantly improve the quality of your day-to-day photos and give them a more polished and thought out feel.  Here a couple of things I made a note of when it comes to backgrounds in my pictures:

• This is a bit of a cheat, but blurring out the background creates a more ethereal feel and further enhances the foreground.  Technically this is still thinking about doing something with the background, rather than ignoring it and leaving it as is.  It is a simple technical change to give the photos a dramatic feel, almost dreamlike.
• Taking the first point and flipping it on its head.  Blurring out the foreground makes for a very interesting play on photos.  Just make sure if you want to focus on the background that the foreground object is off to the side, that way it does not create a blank gap in the middle of the photo, I feel like doing that makes the background focus much more comfortable visually.
• Have your background include contrasting colours in comparison to the foreground, this also applies to brightness.  So a darker background with a lighter foreground or vise versa makes for a very interesting visual feel.
• As a follow-up to the above, contrast is not only with colour and brightness, but patterns and texture will also add a nice feel and make the foreground either more prominent, or in some cases, less prominent.  Should you intentionally want your foreground to “hide” or camouflage with the background make sure both have similar tones and colours for a completely different perspective.
• A big part of backgrounds, particularly for nature photography, is horizon.  For those who watched “The Fableman” would know this, but having the horizon offset rather than right in the middle, creates for a much more dramatic feel and pulls the eye to whichever direction you want it to (i.e. the sky or inversely the ground).

I guess whatever you decide to do creatively is worth exploring, so long as you don’t dismiss the potential techniques you can apply to backgrounds in your photography – and the dramatic results it could yield. It can certainly make the difference and take your photos to the next level with simple adjustments.