background image issues....

i’m new to blender and was watching a few tuts on it and in a couple of them the instructor puts up a reference photo to model off of but when i try to put up a reference photo it only shows up if i hit “1” on the number pad and look through the camera and the image looks like crap also… i know to put it up they say to hit “n” check background image and locate a image… i’m pretty sure i did it the same as the guy in the tutorial but if anyone has any tricks to try out it would be greatly appreciated

There is a possibility to stick images to Empties.
Look into it’s properties, dropdown. Pic is seen from any angle in 3d view then.

Add>Empty>Object Data>Display>Image