Which background?

I took this portrait recently with, as you can see, a black background. Then it occurred to me that it might be improved with a different background, so I added the one you can see in the second shot. The only trouble is, I can't decide which is the better, so I thought I'd seek the opinion of all you 'experts' out there. Is the shot better or worse with the background? The other option, of course, is the colourise the background.

All comments gratefully received.

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I would say black.

A very speedy response! Thanks ghosh - I wonder what the others will say.

The dark BG work very well with the fair skin and hair of the model I vote dark. Sometimes I find those kind of BG a little distracting also. In my opinion in portraits BG should just be that and shouldn't take anything away from the subject.

Thanks for that - do I see the beginning of a trend?

I'd say black too. While the other background is neat, it detracts from her too much.

Black background for me because it has no distractions. I have a hunch that you were trying to use lead-in lines to direct the eye flow to the model, but in this instance, it didn't work IHMO.

Would you consider converting to hi-key with vignette white a background?

Def Black as the second BG is very distracting and disorientating from the photo.

Jarni wrote in post #5504724
Def Black as the second BG is very distracting and disorientating from the photo.

Here here..Go black..Now Roy,,,try a white background and you'll have a highkey image..

Second background hurts my eyes. It's awful. Black looks great.

Well, it seems I have my answer!

midnitejam wrote in post #5504513
Black background for me because it has no distractions. I have a hunch that you were trying to use lead-in lines to direct the eye flow to the model, but in this instance, it didn't work IHMO.

Would you consider converting to hi-key with vignette white a background?

Yes, that's what I was trying to do, but I could certainly try a white background and high key. - or would the black background still be better?

yogestee wrote in post #5504902
Here here..Go black..Now Roy,,,try a white background and you'll have a highkey image..

As I asked above, would a high-key image be better than the black background.

iamaelephant wrote in post #5505315
Second background hurts my eyes. It's awful. Black looks great.

You don't like it then?

Thanks for all you comments everyone.

Roy, what software did you use to cut her out of the original BG?

Whatever it was did a great job around all those stray hairs!

TJ

[Edit: I prefer the black BTW]

Actually, I've got Vertus Fluidmask - but I didn't use it on this occasion. All I did was to overlay the background (after the necessary adjustments - blur, perspective etc) and then erase the parts that covered the model. Thanks for the compliment, but it was really easy in fact

Roy,,,I reckon a high key would look great..You have the start with a blonde subject..Give it a go..

I think I'll have have a go at making this high-key.