The holidays have brought out the very best in bokeh all over the blogosphere.
- Wikipedia defines bokeh (pronounced /boʊˈkeɪ/) as the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”
- Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—”good” and “bad” bokeh, respectively.
- Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights, as blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.
Since I’ve already shared a few “traditional” bokeh shots, I thought I’d share some of my experiments. Since it’s only Tuesday, I’ll probably experiment with lighting and bokeh a little more before year end.
This first shot was taken shortly after my “upside-down” Christmas tree bokeh using a wide angle lens converter. I held it up the converter in front of me (my camera was on a tripod) and focused on the inside of the converter. I think it looks a little bit like a snow globe. For what ever reason, you don’t see the converter in the shot, but I did not edit it out.
I took this next shot the other night using my Lensbaby with the star aperture disks. I was going for more of an abstract shot so I used Pioneer Woman’s Heartland action paired with Kim Klassen’s Silent Night texture to create a unique look. I think it looks cool.
Before you go, two things. First, if you loved my “Santa Baby” photo, would you mind clicking HERE and voting for me…pretty please? Voting will be open through Wednesday. Secondly, if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to sign up for this year’s newest end-of-year link-up party: Memories, Dreams and Reflections! Click on the button below for more information. Merry Christmas!
I think that’s all for today. Happy Tuesday!
