In the past holiday season, I took advantage of the lights in the metro and did a little play with them. Bokeh has been so dear to many, even to non-photographers, so I did a minor twist to the regular round bokeh we see all over the internet.
Just to make things clearer, bokeh refers to the unfocused part of a photo, not necessarily an unfocused light source in which case creates circles such as the photo above.
My goal was to shape these circles to Christmas trees for the reason that this post was meant for Christmas. I tried to but I was sick. I use this excuse since grade school.
Please note that making bokeh shapes doesn’t change the actual color of the lights. The photo above was shot in a place somewhere I don’t remember but sure is not the shaped bokeh of the previous photo.
How I did it is explicable by the photo below:
Or maybe not. You make a condom for your camera lens with a black cardboard and cut the shape you desire. You think it’s easy? I think it’s not.
It’s like I did my first Christmas tree cut-out too big. Well it differs with the kind of lens you use and how large your aperture can get, so just keep on tearing shaped holes in different sizes and see which one works for you.
If you notice, some Christmas tree bokehs were cropped. I’m yet to find the right Christmas tree size on my lens condom. I’m not very sure though if that’s what will give me a perfect bokeh shape but will give it a second try–uh but with a different shape maybe.
AngeliSantina 