So how do you get these crazy shapes in your images? And how is it even called?
In this episode David Bergman with AdoramaTv will show you how to shoot “Bokeh”.
So what is bokeh? It’s actually originated from a Japanese word that means “blur” or “haze”. Photographically it refers to the out-of-focus areas in the foreground or background of an image. To get a pleasingly smooth bokeh, it’s best to use a fast prime lens wide open.
That makes your depth of field really narrow, and throws the background out of focus. The further away your subject is from the background also affects the look of the bokeh.
The number of blades that make up a specific lens’s aperture affects the bokeh as well. Higher quality lenses have more blades, so you usually get a rounder shape in your out-of-focus areas. You can really see this when you have small bright points of light in the background. 8 or 9 blades is generally considered to be a nicer look than five, because pentagon shapes in the background can be distracting.
But here’s where it starts to get interesting… since the aperture shape affects the look of the bokeh, you could actually create your own shapes and use those for interesting effects.
In this video David uses “bokeh masters kit at Adorama” it’s made for lenses with front filter threads of 62 mm or less, but you can make it fit onto a bigger lens by simply cutting out some black construction paper.
The kit comes with shapes like hearts, arrows, stars and more, by placing them in front of the lens, it actually makes those out-of-focus lights take the shape of the cutouts.
Make sure you shoot on manual or aperture priority when you’re doing this. You also might want to use a tripod, or boost your ISO, because you block a lot of light from coming into the lens, and your shutter speed is gonna drop way down when shooting this way.
The coolest thing is that you can also cut out your own shapes to create anything you want. Bokeh is an important concept to understand, and if you want to play around a bit you can create images that are limited only by your imagination.
Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!
One of our closest workshops – Studio Lighting 101 : Introduction to Studio Lighting and 3-Light Set Up
will take place on January 9th, 7-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!!
Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: