

Shot at night and dimly lit, it’s a rare slow moment in the movie - except for the wild and colorful background bokeh that would be more at home in a party scene. It’s during a downtempo emotional scene immediately following a near-fatal car crash. An example of this that has stuck with me is from the 2014 film Need for Speed. A popular look is to hang Edison bulbs in the background of a shot ( I’m guilty of this) or hold shiny objects, like prisms or string lights, directly in front of the lens to create foreground blur.īut even “good” bokeh can go wrong. You can also create your own bokeh by introducing elements into the scene. At night, city scenes can make for fun or dramatic bokeh from street lamps, traffic lights, and neon signs. During the day, a forest canopy can produce striking bokeh as sunlight filters through the leaves, creating a cascade of sparkling light sources in the background. A plain white wall won’t produce interesting blur, even with a very shallow depth of field. There’s no right or wrong answer, but a certain look may be better or worse for certain subjects.īeyond the lens and camera, the scene itself contributes to the quality of the bokeh. Among other styles, it can be feathered, swirly, or look like soap bubbles.


Everything from the shape of a lens’s aperture blades to how the glass itself is designed contributes to the quality of bokeh, and we have different words to describe the different types. The shallower your depth of field, the more blur you’re going to get. What causes bokeh?īokeh is connected to depth of field.
DIY BOKEH LENS HOW TO
It’s possible for bokeh to either contribute to or detract from the mood you want to evoke, so more than just learning how to make it, you need to know what type of bokeh works for specific shots - and when to avoid it entirely. It can influence the story in an image, and that makes it a creative choice worth having some thought put into it. It’s become such a recognizable quality of “real” cameras (DSLRs and mirrorless models) that photographers use it as a way to stand out from the crowd of phone photos shared online (phone manufacturers have caught on to this and developed portrait modes to bring bokeh to camera phones).īut bokeh can be about more than a pretty picture. YouTubers decorate sets specifically to get bokeh in their videos. Instagram is overflowing with bokeh photos. How to shoot bokeh photos with your phoneīokeh can’t really be quantified, but there is subjectively “good” bokeh and “bad” bokeh.How to shoot bokeh photos with your DSLR or mirrorless camera.
