Image as Plane

This entry shows how to use the Image as Plane Add-on.  This is a very convenient tool to use when creating backgrounds or simple posters, etc.  The add-on is built into blender, so you just need to search for it in the add-on library in User Preferences, and enable it.

Once it's enabled, you can make use of it through the standard Import menu.

Select an image from the file system, and you can apply a few settings in the bottom left menu.  Shadeless prevents lighting in the scene from affecting the image/plane.  And make use of the image dimensions will maintain its original look once the plane is created.

When imported a plane will be added to your scene that will already have that image as a texture.  For this example, i took a pot of flowers I made (as a rendered image), and imported that as a plane.  I also added a few spheres in the scene as a foreground object.

The final render with both the background image of flowers, and the spheres in front.