The Best 6 Ways To Create Your Own Bokeh

Fri, 2007-11-09 20:46 — udijw

bokeh_heart Little more than half a year ago, I published a guide to create your own bokeh. This guide provides a simple technique to shape the bokeh of the unfocused elements in your picture.

Here are the best 6 pictures that employed this technique, courtesy of DIYPhotography readers. I was glad to find creativity both in the shapes used (guess what? Hearts wins the jackpot) and the creativity using this technique.

Picture 1 by joy_sale - use interesting bokeh where not expected - a nightly portrait.

Picture 2 by JoshuaRaymund - Match the bokeh shape to the picture shape.

Picture 3 by _barb_ - Put butterflies in a forest

Picture 4 by Navin Shetty - Take a lovely nightscape.

Picture 5 by JoshuaRaymund - crate stars shaped bokeh.

Picture 6 by silkegb - Make a sweet picture with a before and after look.

Made a cool bokeh of your own? Let us know by showing off in the comments section.

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Comments

Sat, 2007-11-17 12:07 — SharkSurfer (not verified)

Playing around

I was recently playing around with this, heres what I came up with:

Mon, 2007-11-19 02:48 — Camil0 (not verified)

Amazing!

I've tested it this night.. and the results are wonderfull!!
Great idea! =)

I've also tried to build my one reversing ring for macro, but it didn't went the great!! I've cut a finger with a knife...!! I guess i've learned the hard way to be carefull! eheheh!! =)

Thank You for sharing this information...!!
I've tried to build my one Mini bouncer for flash, with k-line and golden spray...! The results are warmer pictures.. if you calibrate the WB to the golden exposure, the background (if were photographing in daylight!) goes blue, wich creates an interesting color in the final result...!
you can check the results at http://www.flickr.com/camil0

Hugs!!

Thu, 2007-12-06 20:03 — Anonymous (not verified)

Any hopes of achieving this

Any hopes of achieving this with a point & shoot?

Mon, 2007-12-10 19:07 — Pca22ev (not verified)

I've tried.........

Fantastic, simple and very funny.

Wed, 2007-12-12 18:37 — Pixi Styk (not verified)

BOKEH

This was easy as pie and fun!! I am amazed at the ease of this. Now I'm inspired to do more, a lot more with this thing you call Bokeh :)

I am posting my first attempt at it!! Dont laugh :)

Wed, 2007-12-12 21:25 — udijw

Great hearts, Pixi

nothing to laugh about.
I payed a visit to your site. Lovley! I loved the Bethany shots.
- udi

Fri, 2007-12-14 01:03 — Pixi Styk (not verified)

new links to my bokeh!

Thanks udi, I really like all the info I am getting from this web site, it is so helpful!!
I had 2 pictures posted on flickr.com but I needed to repost them so I deleted the above pics but here they are again, in full size!!

Wed, 2008-01-30 20:23 — Anonymous (not verified)

Bokeh at the Dollar Store

Try the dollar store for some pre made single hole punchers. I got a heart, star, moon, diamond/square, butterfly, and what I think is a 5 petal flower.... all for a dollar each...beats trying to cut them by hand, which I am not very good at.

Wed, 2008-01-30 22:14 — Paul (not verified)

Dollar Store Hole Punchers?

I'd love to know which dollar store and where? We have a number of them in NYC. Of course I've never thought to look for such a thing. It would be cool to find one of these hole punchers.
I'm also wonder if it may be possible to make such a lens hood to fit around the zoom lens of my P&S Kodak Z712 IS camera.
Does the light just bounce around the inside of the hood to produce these multiple shapes in the photos?

Fri, 2008-02-01 15:15 — Tak (not verified)

lens hood

@Paul

It's not the light bouncing around, it's only the shape of the hole you cut/punch in the paper. You don't need a hood, just a piece of paper cut to pretty much the exact size. If you have a filter for your lens (UV or Skylight, or anything basically) you can trace around that to get your diameter. Bokeh is a term that describes the unfocused elements in the picture, that's why the subject can be in focus and only the background elements will take the shape of your cutout. Lenses with fewer iris blades or is it diaphragm blades will be less "round" and create rougher out of focus elements. I'll see if I can dig up a link to some pics showing the difference. Some people obsess over it while most people don't even know what it is even when it's pointed out.

This fun project is like "custom bokeh" and while I haven't tried it yet, I will soon!

Thu, 2008-03-13 02:40 — Peter (not verified)

Will this work with video cameras?

I have a video camera that has a f1.8 aperture, though the imager is much smaller than digital SLR.

While the custom bokeh works with my SLR lens, when I try with my camcorder, it is only a vignette. Has anyone successfully tried this on a camcorder? Or any ideas as to how I can get it work?

I'm using a Canon HV20, by the way, if that's of any help.

Thanks,
Peter

Sat, 2008-03-29 02:58 — Black Flip Video Camcorder (not verified)

- udi

Tue, 2008-05-20 10:19 — Anonymous (not verified)

Just a question

i havent really tried this technique, i just want to know if this will work with an aperture of 3.5? i have the nikor dx 18-135. thanks :)

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