Super noob question about background

Ok, here it is. I’ve seen lots of renders witha black background and was wondering how they do that. I can do it with a plane but thats sort of a pain. My current un altered backgound is blue, is there a way to change this? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Check out the world settings button under the shading (F5) section.

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/7075/worldsetting0ap.jpg

The online Docs does a really nice / clear explaination.

http://www.blender3d.org/documentation/htmlI/c6228.html

thanks thats what I needed to know.