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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Bokeh, a light effect

What is Bokeh?

Bokeh, is the unique look to photos that you achieve by spinning reflective lights out of focus in the background of your images. You can see this effect in the small dots of light that appear white and blue in the above image.  <extra examples, Wikipedia>

This is a fun effect to use, with Christmas lights, or any nighttime photography, but you can also use it during portraiture or any other time you can have an large aperture. (Reminder: A large Aperture means a low number which equals a LOT of light coming into your exposure.)




There are three basic steps to achieve this effect.
  1. Set your camera to keep the aperture wide open (the lower the number you can reach the more you will see the effect, however you need to balance that with your overall exposure so it takes some practice not to overexpose your subject, especially if your shooting during the day.) 
  2. Get as close as you can to your subject
  3. Keep the background with the lights as far away as you can. 

HAWKQUEST: I have had the extreme pleasure of working with HawkQuest in Colorado on several occasions. It is a non-profit that has a strong goal of making education about birds of prey both fun and meaningful. To learn more about HawkQuest, how you can help or even where they will be so you can come in close contact with these amazing animals check out their website. http://www.hawkquest.org/

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