Think about your background when shooting macro photography, or indeed other genres such as portrait photography. There is no point ensuring you have tack sharp focus and good lighting if you’ve got an unsightly dead leaf behind your subject, or an ugly fence - or even a strolling cat! “I can remove it in post” I hear you say, but it is so much better to get it right in camera.
And whilst I suggest you remove unwanted and unattractive distractions, it is conversely possible to include subject matter in the background to create an interesting feature. Here I used bokeh blades to incorporate the background leaves to give a sense of motion to my image.
This one too, was taken with the same lens, with the bokeh blades and I allowed for plenty of negative space to enjoy the effect.
Using a wide aperture, I have on occasions, used interesting tea towels in the background - just to give an interesting blur of colours. Other times I place coloured card behind - sometimes using pale blue to replicate the sky, as I did here with the tulips.
The point is: make your background as much of a conscious decision as you do the foreground. And, as with my images using the bokeh blades, it can even be part of the artistic process.
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