B - You asked for questions... I see that you've highlighted the bokeh technique in you last couple of picture posts, any tips for us beginners trying to learn how to do this? Thanks and cheers - Jim
Hi Jim!
Yeah, so I’m OBSESSED with bokeh right now. I don’t know if it’s Christmastime that brings it out in me, or if it’s just the ‘taste of the moment’ kind of thing. Either way, there are a few things you can do to achieve this look. The first being a wide open aperture on your lens when you’re shooting. The Christmas photo I posted of Soley was shot at f/1.8. That creates a very shallow depth of field, and really blows out all of the detail in the background, creating the bokeh on the tree.
The second thing I did with that image is a bit of a cheat, but I stand by the creative process. I work almost exclusively in Adobe Lightroom, and there are some amazing presets you can download that composite bokeh on top of your images, with incredible customization.
The presets don’t work for every image, and using them sparingly is the absolute key. But, when they work, they work.
You can also get that bokeh overlay look the old fashioned way, by holding some fairy lights super close to your lens when shooting, so they fall way in front of the plane of focus, but I only had two hands - one to shoot and the other to keep the toddler from yanking the string of lights out of the plug.
Hope this helps!