A Step by Step Guide to Bokeh: How to Take Blurry Light Pictures

How to Create that Bokeh Effect

Photography can sometimes be considered as magic. It can create a lot of things that cannot be easily explained to people that don’t work in the field of photography or understand photography.

Lights are the most interesting thing you can experiment with and that can create some beautiful effects. 

There are many unique effects can create when you combining lights and blur in photography.

One of the beautiful effects it can make is famous BOKEH. It gives great look to your photograph, and not just that it gives it dreamy and enchanting feeling to the photo as well.

Don’t be afraid if it, when I say you should experiment with it, it is not a complicated thing or something for which you have to be a master of photography.

Here’s a basic tutorial on how you can achieve that effect.

What is Bokeh

Let’s start with the basic and interesting name of the effect – word bokeh comes from the Japanese word “boke” that means “blur” or “haze”.   It basically represents out of focus part of photography.

You probably saw it on thousands of photos and wondered about it, how is it possible to get that, but you just didn’t know how is it called so you can find a way to achieve it.

When you decide to start experimenting with backgrounds and the way they look out of focus, you’re creating totally different dimension to your photography. When you look at a photo without bokeh effect, you can get the impression that the area and the subject are in 2D, because there is nothing separating background and the foreground. That makes it hard for the observer to focus on what is important on the photograph.

Bokeh, both in the foreground and background, gives the illusion that the subject is 3D even though the image is by itself 2D.

Important factors to consider when creating bokeh

• The correct lens
• The distance between the camera and the subject
• Aperture
• Lights

We will cover each one below.

Lenses

When we come to the equipment, there is no specific rule about what is the best lens for creating bokeh. There are just some lenses that make better bokeh than the others.

Bokeh effect can be created with almost any lens, but some are much better than others.  One important factor is a large aperture.  F2.8 and below work the best because they allow for a shallow depth of field.  

Prime lenses are usually preferred for achieving bokeh since you can get one with good image quality and a wide aperture for a reasonable price compared to a telephoto.  This assumes you can get close enough to your subject to frame it properly.  A 50mm prime is a great place to start.

Distance Between Your Camera and Subject

Regarding the distance between the camera and the subject, the rule goes that more you are close to the subject, the more background will be blurred. But when we say close, that doesn’t have to mean that you should be close, you can also use longer lenses, like an example 200mm lens which can bring you closer to the subject and create nice bokeh.

Aperture

Considering the aperture, the larger opening of the aperture, more of the bokeh and blur effect you get. When we say the larger opening of the aperture it means that the number of F-stops should be below 5.6 ( for example f/2.8 is a very good number of the aperture for creating bokeh effect).

This will help you focus only on your subject (or object) behind (or in front) who you want to make bokeh. Most of the people think bokeh is just used for the background, but that is not true, it can be used in the foreground as well if it is used in the right way.

Bokeh Effects with Lights

For example, different colors of lights or street likes can look great as a blurry background. In addition to giving a dynamic element to your photograph, it helps set the tone of the expression or mood.

Choosing the right background colors that complement the tones in the subject of the photo adds an additional dimension to your photos. 

You may want to avoid colors that clash, unless you are specifically trying to introduce contrast, or evoking a certain mood with striking color combinations.

Here’s a chart of complementary colors to consider when composing your photos.

Make sure your photo is otherwise well composed, for example, make sure to get the exposure right, as well as other technical factors like focus and framing of your subject.

There are no hard and fast rules, so feel free to experiment and use your imagination.  You may be surprised by the result.

 

Creating a Shaped Bokeh Effect

There are some interesting experiments that you can do with bokeh by creating different shape bokeh effects in the background for a unique composition. This can easily be done with some simple supplies at home and without any special equipment.

If you are interested in crafty stuff, this can be a really fun thing for you to do. I experimented with this quite a lot and always got some great results.

Here are the tools you will need in addition to your camera and lens:

• Black construction paper
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Ruler

Start by cutting out a strip of black construction paper that can be formed into a cylinder which is the size of your lens.  Next, make a circle that is the diameter of the cylinder that fits over the paper tube kind of like a lens cap.

Cut the desired shape into the circular ‘lens cap’ using scissors or the craft knife.  For some shapes, a hole punch may also be helpful.  Some shape ideas are hearts, stars, Christmas tree shapes, or anything that fits with the theme of your photos.  Here’s an article with more information.

Some ideas of what you can create:

But as mentioned before, that shape in the middle could be anything. For New Year it is very popular to put tree as a shape and play with the lights on your Christmas tree.

There is an endless number of experiments that you can do, just let your imagination and creativity run wild.