5 Tips on "Bokeh"

June 05, 2012

5 Tips on "Bokeh"

Bokeh comes from the Japanese word ‘boke’, which means fuzzy. In photography, bokeh defines the quality of the blurred lights presented in a photo. We’re not referring to a badly taken photo that’s all out of focus, but rather the aesthetically pleasing background blur. Usually, this type of blur highlights the focused subject even more.
Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. This type of photography is very interesting, and can make even the simplest objects look spontaneous and beautiful.

Here are some tips to get you started with bokeh photography:

1. Larger aperture works best, so use a low f-stop number like f1.4, f1.8 or f2.8.
2. You would need to set the shutter speed faster. Slower and I find the background lights getting blurred together, instead of rendering small circles. If it’s too dark, increase the ISO level rather than the f-stop number.
3. The closer you get to subject, the better. If you’re using a zoom lens, extend it to the longest focal length.
4. The further away the background, the better.
5. If you don’t have a subject and want to create the bokeh effect with the night lights, manually focus your camera..Set the focus on any object apart from that light source from which you wanna get the bokeh..

Hera a related video for bokeh tutorial- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPcdWxhLwoA

This picture was taken by me by using Canon Powershot SX150 IS-