


The first image below shows hot air balloons that were shot at a low aperture to keep the balloons in the foreground in focus, while the balloons further back were used as the bokeh light source. Look for background lighting that you can use to create interesting bokeh effects. The same theory applies when shooting at night. The goal is to keep the bokeh light source blurred. Get as close to your subject as you can to have them and whatever else you want to be sharp in focus. When going for bokeh, I check my surroundings and place my subjects a good distance from the light source. I always try to shoot at 2.8 or faster to get my background as blurry as possible. Look for things to include in your background such as trees with specks of light peering through, street lights, car lights, lights from buildings, or any other background lighting. The key is to shoot with a wide aperture. You want your subject to be sharp and in focus, with blurry and out of focus lights in the background. You can really take advantage of getting beautiful natural bokeh when shooting outdoors. You can also use a fun little trick to create your own bokeh shapes, which we will cover in this article. Different lenses naturally give different outcomes depending on the shape of the blades inside the lens. Have you ever seen a bokeh effect in a photo? Bokeh refers to any lights in the out of focus area of your images.Ī great thing about bokeh effects is that depending on the lenses that you use, you can achieve different shapes coming from the light surrounding your subject.
