People, places and objects: bokeh and depth of field

How to create beautiful Bokeh

1. Large aperture works best, so use a low f-stop number like f1.4, f1.8 or f2.8.

2. The best lens I ever bought was the Canon 50mm f/1.8, creating soft beautiful bokeh light in the background. I remember I only paid around $100 for it, so it really isn't that expensive as opposed to other lenses!

3. Experimenting with focus - I soon found out that being CLOSE to the subject and FURTHER away from the background (lights) was the most effective way to create bokeh.

4. The obvious - LIGHT in the background! It can't be a consistent kind of background, there has to be some form of lights in the background. I discovered plain yellow/white fairy lights and used them quite often in concept/still life photography for a prettier background. I've also used standard christmas lights.

5. Remember that the shutter speed must be faster than 1/60, otherwise the bokeh won't turn out as well. In past experiments, I've tested this indoors and realized I could still use my Canon speedlite flash and use a faster shutter speed to create an excellent bokeh effect.

Bokeh is an adaptation from a a Japanese word meaning blur. In photography this term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus.

When referring to Bokeh, we can distinguish some of it characteristics:

- Is the light/dark gradient smooth or sharp?

- What shape will a small dot of light take what it is in the Bokeh area? (mirror lenses for example, create a bagel like Bokeh)

We can play with those two variants to create a special Bokeh.

You will need :
One large aperture lens (a Canon 50mm F1.8 (B&H) is used here, but Nikon 50mm 1.8 (B&H) will also do, and the superb Nikon 50mm 1.4 (B&H) will work even better)
One sheet of black paperboard

1. Cut and shape the sheet to make a fake lens hood. The Diameter is made so that it snugly fits on the lens.

2. In the middle of the filter the wanted bokeh shape is cut out - in out example a heart is used. I’m not sure how big a hole the shape can be. But you can check it right away by just looking through the viewfinder. On the 50mm lens @ F1.8 a 15mm heart gives a metering value equal to F3.2, so it can probably be a little bigger (you can use a puncheror cut it by hand).

3. Set your camera to its lowest aperture value (completely open).

Here are two shots to demonstrate this technique - one with a bare lens and the other with the hearted hood. see more shots here and here (I leave it as an exercise to tell which is which :)