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Objective: Students will understand what bokeh is and how to create good bokeh in their photographs


What is "Bokeh"?

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The word "bokeh" comes from the Japanese word for "blur." 

Bokeh is the quality of out-of-focus or “blurry” parts of the image rendered by a camera lens – it is NOT the blur itself or the amount of blur in the foreground or the background of a subject. 

The blur that you are so used to seeing in photography that separates a subject from the background is the result of shallow “depth of field” and is generally simply called “background blur”. 

The quality and feel of the background/foreground blur and reflected points of light, however, is what photographers call Bokeh.



Your assignment:

Shoot a series of photographs with good "bokeh" using Christmas lights.  Try to create bokeh shapes using a special hood on your lens, or shoot without the hood to create circular bokeh lights.  Try shooting just the lights, as well as incorporating a clear subject in the foreground. 
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Making the hood for bokeh shapes:

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video instructions

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Here's what we'll need:

  • Black card stock or heavy paper
  • Scissors
  • Exacto Knife or decorative hole-punch
  • Tape
  • Glue Stick / Adhesive
  • Pencil
  • Camera Lens (a "faster" lens with a nice wide aperture would work much better for this, but we will do the best we can with our "kit" lens)

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1. To begin, take a strip of paper and form a ring around your lens- tape the paper together so that it fits snugly around the lens.  (Leave lens cap one while doing this to prevent scratching/touching the lens)

2. Take the ring off the lens, place it on a piece of black cardstock and trace a circle around the ring.

3. Cut out the circle.

4. Using an exacto knife, cut a square in the middle of the circle.
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5. So, now you have a ring and a circle with a square cut out of the middle. Tape them together like pictured above to form a “hood”. For the benefit of the picture, I put the tape on the inside so you can’t see it, but you could tape it on the outside instead. It’s easier and it works just as well.
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6. Now it’s time to cut out your shapes! You can use scissors or an Xacto knife to cut out any shape you can imagine.  Decorative hole-punches (like the one pictured above) work great too.  CAUTION:  Make shape no wider than 1 centimeter!

7. Cut out your shape, being sure to leave enough room on the edges so you can attach it to the “hood”. I used removable adhesive so I could easily switch between shapes on the hood.  A glue stick works great too.
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8. Attach the shape to the hood and put the hood on your lens- when you’re all done, it should look like this.

TIP: Using the hood lets in less light, so you have to set your shutter speed slower to compensate- use a tripod to keep your camera steady!

shooting

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Using the hood lets in less light, so you have to set your shutter speed slower to compensate- use a tripod to keep your camera steady!


Take a photograph of Christmas lights.  You want the lights to be blurred out to create nice, soft, bokeh shapes- so...
  • Use the lowest f-stop possible (Use Av mode)
  • Use a longer focal length (zoom-in)
  • Place your camera far away from the Christmas lights



Experiment!  Take photos of just the lights, or try to incorporate a subject in the foreground with the lights in the background.


Switch hoods with a classmate to try out other shapes and try it without the hood to get circular bokeh.
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