Thursday, December 11, 2008

Shaped Bokeh

I should not browse blogs. Photography blogs especially. On this one http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ I scrolled through ten pages of posts and came across how to make shapes out of the out of unfocused lights in the background of pictures. Quick explanation is you cut a shape out of paper or card stock, set the focus on something close to the camera, and zoom in until the shape disappears on the viewer, with my camera that was about 72 mm with a 1 cm across star. You also want the largest Aperture you can get, i.e. the lowest number.

I haven't quite figured out how to focus on something closeup, but I did manage to make shapes out of some Christmas lights. I suspect it would have worked a little better if I could find lights in my house that didn't blink.

This is the first shape I cut out, notice the fuzzy bits of paper on the edges.

Made for fuzzy stars. The sharper the edges the sharper the images.

More in depth instructions than mine can be found here: http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_own_bokeh and here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/shaped_bokeh/discuss/72157610869813179/

No comments: