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Nature backgrounds are among the most popular background images in the digital world. The raw beauty of nature makes a visually appealing image that speaks to people from many different walks of life. With contributors from all over the world, the Shutterstock library is a comprehensive collection of striking images from every imaginable landscape. Simply scroll down, and you can browse our curated collection of nature background images just waiting for your creative project.
All about nature background images
By virtue of their content, nature background images can take any number of forms. The scope of the natural world is so vast that natural background images may be among the largest categories available. Nature landscapes, nature patterns, nature textures, and nature wallpaper adorn screens everywhere, from your own laptop to the TV at the dentist's office. Nature paintings and nature abstract backgrounds can venture away from the purely photo-real image, while beautiful nature images and images for meditation in nature can bring nature backgrounds into the privacy of the viewer's own mind.
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Questions about nature backgrounds
A nature background, simply put, is an image of one or more elements of the natural world used as an image background. A good example is a green nature background full of brilliant foliage as the background for a slide in a professional presentation. Alternatively, a nature lake forest can bring the colors and tones of water into the greenery, which would be ideal for a website promoting calm relaxation. Nature backgrounds divide roughly into two categories: close-ups and vistas. Close-ups bring a small element of nature, like a flower or a colorful leaf, into the full frame of the image. A vista, on the other hand, may span several miles and offer up an image of space and distance.
A natural landscape is an image that captures large stretches of a natural view. Common examples include mountain ranges, forests, sand dunes, or rivers curving through forests. They differ from cityscapes, which highlight humanity's touch upon the planet. They also tend not to focus on singular elements in the view. Any image that captures the natural world at a distance, untouched by people, is a natural landscape. These images lend themselves particularly well to projects that want to avoid depictions of humanity or our dwellings and concentrate instead on the tranquility of nature.
Finding engaging natural background images is easy. First, you can simply scroll down to explore the curated collection of natural background images we've put together. You'll find some of our favorite images from every variety of natural backgrounds you could imagine. If you'd like to search for something more specific, go to the search bar at the top of this page, and type your search query into the box labeled "Search for images." Once you get your results, you can use the filters on the left side of the results page to narrow the images down by orientation, image type, color scheme, and more. If you have a specific image in mind, and you'd like something similar, then click "Search by image" next to the search bar. You can upload your image, and the A.I. that powers the Shutterstock library will return similar compositions, ready for licensing and for your next project!
Nature beauty images are a subset of the larger, more general "nature images" category. Nature beauty images feature both close-ups and vistas that compare naturally arising beauty against the everyday world. These images often feature bold colors, stunning contrasts, or exaggerated features from the natural world, like trees growing at severe angles, or the stunning contours of a tiger's eye. Unlike darker images that can capture how dangerous and rugged the natural world can be, nature beauty images transport us to the unique features of our world that stand out amid their surroundings. These images can make good nature background images because of their dramatic and striking subject matter. They help draw viewers into your project, and you can use that interest to carry them through the rest of your planned content experience.
Downloading amazing pictures of nature is easier than ever with Shutterstock's free trial program. You can try out Shutterstock's 10 images per month plan absolutely free, and if you decide within 30 days that you'd rather not subscribe, no problem. This program is a great way for you to download a few nature background images and try them out to see which one fits your project best. Go back, and help yourself to a few more images, and you can see what it's like to have endless images at your fingertips, day and night. No matter how big or small your project is, or whether it's digital or print, the Shutterstock library has images from contributors all over the world in every medium you can imagine to help bring your design projects to life.
How to use nature backgrounds creatively
Using nature visuals for website backgrounds Nature background images are great for websites because they have a broad, universal appeal, and they can bring visual interest to your website without overpowering your messaging. Some of the best background images for websites are sprawling vistas, lofty cloudscapes, sweeping deserts, or distant mountains. All of these elements are interesting in and of themselves, but they don't demand our active attention. That means you can use them to bring a particular tone to your site (dark, powerful, inspirational, peaceful — you name it), and then you can use your website copy and other, more-forward images to create a complete browsing experience. Background images that are generally balanced compositionally, meaning the important elements aren't all packed in one area of the image, work really well as backgrounds because you don't have to worry about important visual elements disappearing behind your content. Using nature images as wallpapers Nature background images make particularly good wallpapers because they can settle into the background of your website or profile. This means they can still bring visual interest to the browsing experience, but they don't necessarily need to be "the point" of your site or profile. Background images tell visitors a great deal about us — they indicate what we value, what we find interesting, and what sorts of experiences we enjoy. Using nature images can suggest adventure, calm, peace, exploration, and discovery — all of which are good characteristics for your website or profile. Look for images that gently move the viewer's eye around the screen with interesting features — but not so interesting that your viewer ignores everything else. You don't want to worry about "covering up" interesting elements in your wallpaper, so choose an image with plenty of real estate and lots to look at. How to use nature backgrounds for marketing and promo campaigns Plenty of marketing and promo campaigns have (and still do!) made good use of nature background images. The type of image you select helps tell a story about your brand. Usually, marketing narratives position the audience as the main character, which means you can place people in the mountains, in a river, up a tree, in the clouds, or even deep below ground, depending on the type of experience you want to simulate. Once you've situated your marketing audience appropriately, you can then leverage your product to maximize that experience. How does the product fit into the environment? How can buyers use it to improve their lives? What's the experience like without the product? These are all valuable questions to consider when crafting your marketing narrative and deciding on which natural background image to use.
