Friday, 3 February 2012

Understanding the Unique Art of Bokeh Photography

By Roy Barker


Have you ever heard of bokeh photography? Do you know what it is and what makes it quite special? For those of you who have just heard about bokeh photography, here's an article that will help you understand this art form better and help you to get started in shooting your very first superb bokeh pictures as a one of your photography tricks.

The word"bokeh" was taken from the Japanese word "boke" which means fuzzy, blurred or hazy. As such bokeh photography can best be portrayed as the method of adding unique classy quality and a surreal appeal to an image by blurring the foreground or background light to form circular discs of glowing lights with fuzzy, uncertain edges. Consider the dreamy effects made by glowing backgrounds in wedding images and you will get it.

Did this get you interested? Can not wait to try it out and experience the difference bokeh photography brings? Are you wanting to find out how you can attain the bokeh effect? If you answered yes to these questions, these tips will help you get started:

- Use a bigger aperture and a low f-stop. Remember to set your camera on aperture priority mode to accomplish a narrow depth of field.
- Set the aperture speed at 1/50 of a second. Low aperture speed causes background lights to obscure together.
- You can similarly create the bokeh effect by setting your camera on manual priority mode. Ensure you set the aperture to the lowest f-stop so you will get a wider aperture and slower shutter speed.
- Make sure your background is lit with bright glowing lights (consider street lamps and traffic lights). A background that's poorly lit will not render a great bokeh effect. Raise your ISO level if you happen to feel your background is too dark.
- Get as near as you can to your subject. Digital SLRs with high factor zoom lenses work well in creating the bokeh effect. Remember, the closer the gap between your subject and your camera is, the bigger your chances of blurring the background.
- Make sure your background is as far distant as practicable to your subject.

And this is how you create those great bokeh photographs. Nevertheless you can also create the bokeh effect by using image editors. Just don't forget to keep the ensuing images as pragmatic as practicable and you are all set!




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