DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

How to make a full body bokehlicious wall

Sep 6, 2016 by Lucas Shu 8 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

bokehlicious-wall-05

Sometimes you want to create a stunning portraits indoors but you are stuck with those seamless white, black and gray sheets as backgrounds. Well, how about creating a about creating a bokehlicious  wall like this?

I love using out of focus bokeh circles, they are beautiful, unique and pretty dramatic. There are many ways to create those bokeh shapes in the background (I;ve seen light bulbs and LED lights used before). The method below, however, is simple and it will create hundreds, and thousands of little bokeh shapes.

Things to prepare

bokehlicious-wall-11

  • Aluminum foil
  • Strobes (I use 4 Canon 600EX-RT)
  • wireless flash transceiver (I use the Cactus V6)
  • a round flash softbox
  • a fast lens (I use the Canon 85mm f1.8)
  • color gels filter
  • 3 big boards (for mounting the foil and flaggin some light)

Shooting

The back wall was about 2 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, I made it from two big boards. I used about 4 or 5 aluminum foil rolls to cover the wall. (The kind of foil you get in the local supermarket). As you mount the foil, make sure to crumple and uncrumple the sheets before putting them on the board. Each little crease will later become a small bokeh ring, so make lots of them.

Camera and strobe Settings

  • Camera settings: ISO50; 1/16; f1.8
  • Camera: Canon 1Dx
  • Lens: Canon EF85mm f1.8 usm

bokehlicious-wall-13

The setup is pretty simple. 2 of the strobes light the model a bare one from behind, as a kicker, and a diffused one from the front. I used a Round Flash, but any soft modifier will do.

Another 2 strobes point to the wall (both fire at a low setting – 1/32). I added blue gels on the strobes to add some kick to the photo. Without the gels and color the aluminum wall looks like, well, an aluminum wall.

Remember that we needed another big board? I use it to flag the light coming from the key. Otherwise it will contaminate my nice blue (or yellow, or purple) bokeh circles with white.

 

Here is a short video showing this technique

And here are more photos taken with this technique

bokehlicious-wall-12

bokehlicious-wall-10

bokehlicious-wall-01

bokehlicious-wall-02

bokehlicious-wall-03

bokehlicious-wall-04

bokehlicious-wall-06

About The Author

Lucas Shu is a fashion and wedding photographer based in Kyoto, Japan. You can see more of his work on his website, and say hi on his facebook page.

P.S. you may recall a similar method use for smaller objects.

P.P.S. If you like lots of bokeh shapes, you may wanna check the Bokeh Masters Kit.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

How To Photograph A Bokehlicious New Year’s Photo Using Black Paper And An Ironing Board Default ThumbnailBokehlicious Splash Shots PortraitPro Body now lets you change your subject’s entire body How To Shoot The Perfect Perfume Shot Using El Bokeh Wall

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: bokeh, el bokeh wall, lighting, Lucas Shu

« Vandals destroy local landmark “Duckbill” Rock at Oregon’s Cape Kiwanda
Australian man almost drowns while trying to save his drone »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Fall in love with astrophotography with these 10 space objects
  • Hipstamatic app relaunches as a social network, but only for iOS
  • Instagram now has ads even in search results. Sigh
  • Panasonic has finally developed its 8K organic global shutter OPF CMOS sensor
  • Instagram co-founder hates how “soulless” the app has become

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy