Shutter Sisters

Gathering Bokeh

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A few months back Sarah-Ji shed some light on the meaning of the background and technique of bokeh. Back then, I was infatuated with the idea and the look of ‘beautiful bokeh’ and loved that it would just magically appear in a photograph I captured now and again. It was always a nice surprise to be met with lovely soft spheres in the background of my image, sometimes solitary, sometimes in a chorus or sometimes coming from a mix of light and water in mystifying sunspot like shapes. I am partial to and speaking of the lovely little ‘balls’ of bokeh (as opposed to the smooth and silky, non circular kind) just to clarify for this post.

 

If you have been reading this blog since it’s incarnation, you probably know by now that I am smitten by surprises like these and love to stumble upon beauty by happenstance. In other words, I subscribe to the notion of photographic magic and happy accidents and I am pretty content living and shooting in that state of mind when I can get away with it. However, my appreciation and admiration of Bokeh slowly grew into a kind of obsession. A healthy obsession, but an obsession none the less. I quickly became what one might consider a bokeh stalker. I began to notice when it was showing up in my photos and paying more attention to what I was doing at the time of the capture in hopes to better understand it and to be able to eventually, consistently recreate it. If certain photographic details don’t pique my curiosity enough to want to try to crack the code on them, I just enjoy them when they do decide to show up. You know, that magic thing again—kinda like the whole thing is out of my control. In the case of pretty, petite-planetary bokeh, I felt driven to figure out how to find it and how to gather it up in my images. I liken it to learning to catch fireflies in a jar which, by the way my girls and I learned to do for the first time over the summer. So fun!

 

As I began to recognize what time of day the natural light bokeh was most likely to be bountiful and easy to access (in the early morning and late afternoon light) and how the light could become dappled enough to create the celestial circles (filtered through bushes or tree leaves) I began to then play with it’s size. The aperture you are set at, will affect the circumference of the circles (i.e. the size of the opening of the aperture will either bring that light into focus or will throw that light out of focus. The more out of focus the light speckles are, the larger your bokeh circle. So, I got that down but it still wasn’t enough. I had to take it a step further. See what I mean about obsession?

 

I had to find a way to collect the light in such a way that I could place the circles right where I wanted them. Imagine being able to find the bokeh when you want it and then actually control where the shapes end up? Oh I know, it seems all too calculated for a self-proclaimed intuition photographer like myself but the results are intoxicating and the experimentation is addicting.

 

Finding the filtered light and shooting at the aperture that gives me the results I desire is not the part that is compelling for me. That stuff is just a trial and error; a practice makes much closer to perfect thing. It’s in the careful placement of the shapes that my truest artist comes out to play.

 

As we learn to fine tune the way we see our subjects, pay attention to the background of our shots, fill in the negative space with glittering, sparkling, dancing light, we begin to actually write the poetry of own photographic work. As if almost beckoning us, bokeh is happy to oblige, and allows us to surely and steadily harness it’s magic.

 

What images can you share that unveil the mysteries of bokeh? Any tips or tricks to your process? Is it a science to you or more the coincidence of the click? Beauty is beauty no matter how we capture it. I cannot wait to see what you and your bokeh have created together.

Comments

  3. On this particular day, the trees were covered in frost and enveloped in fog. The sun was just breaking through and the frost was beginning to melt, creating all these tiny drops of water, which created the loveliest bokeh.

    http://dailyvignette.com/2009/02/16/just-a-little-frosting/
    http://dailyvignette.com/2009/02/17/natures-diamonds/
    http://dailyvignette.com/2009/02/18/the-last-of-the-series-in-color/

    There are a couple more pages going back from Just a Little Frosting, but I didn’t want to list them all, in case you were interested.

  6. I’ve only really been able to achieve great bokeh through a couple of shoots as I’m still mastering my camera. this was a great insight on how to better control those times.

  10. Hello, my name is Lucrecer and I am a bokeh junkie. I am in no way sorry for it, I love it.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldb/3034945253/in/set-72157600318344027/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldb/3034944153/in/set-72157600318344027/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldb/382150949/in/set-72157600318344027/

    I intentionally look for ways to have that buttery blur in my shots. I tend to like to shoot wide open for the best bokeh, but I am learning to not always shoot wide open and look for good light to have sparkle in my shots when I want that. I also like to shoot for bokeh in front of my images. There is something very cool about sandwiching something tack sharp in the middle of buttery blur.

  11. Water and light. That always works for me. Focusing on the subjects with the light reflecting off the water makes such lovely bokeh. I swear.

  14. Tracey, if there are frequencies for the creative waves that permeate our lovely collective universe, you and I, my sister, must often be tuning in to the same station. I’ve been kind of obsessed with bokeh lately too, and have been rather embarrassed lately that I’m having a hard time finding photos to post that weren’t of me trying to capture me some bokeh.

    Being a city girl, I’ve been finding the bokeh in streetlights and stoplights and the plethora of other ligts:
    http://sarah-ji.squarespace.com/blog/2009/2/21/i-love-me-some-bokeh.html

    My technique for bokeh is to shoot as wide as possible (as the shape of the bokeh will be determined by the shape of your aperture, so the rounder the more ball-like), put the source of the bokeh somewhere in the background, and focus on something that’s pretty close to me so that the points of light will blur really nice and big.

    It’s still trial and error, but it sure is fun!

  17. I too am obsessed with those fuzzy balls of Magic!
    Here is a few shots from a wedding I shot a few weeks ago:
    The Dress: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c227/kathennessey/Brooke%20and%20Nathan/_DSC4196.jpg
    The Centerpiece: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c227/kathennessey/Brooke%20and%20Nathan/_DSC4238.jpg
    The Dessert: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c227/kathennessey/Brooke%20and%20Nathan/_DSC4173.jpg
    The Happy Couple: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c227/kathennessey/Brooke%20and%20Nathan/_DSC3567-Edit.jpg

  18. I LOVE LOVE LOVE bokeh! When I updated my blog…I made sure to have some in my header! http://imother2point0.blogspot.com/

    I thought i had oodles of bokah shots to share, but after searching around my flickr photostream, I realized that yes, bokeh, can be elusive.l…especially during the grey days of winter.
    Here are a few that I found. I LOVE the ones from the holiday lights 🙂

    Now that there’s been more light available outside, I’ll back on my quest to find more bokeh!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403052@N00/3233647167/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403052@N00/2777051932/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403052@N00/3218888706/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403052@N00/3097773475/

    there are MORE, but I don’t want to you to O.D. on my bokeh…feel free to hit the link below to the bokeh shots I could find in my photostream 🙂
    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bokeh&w=68403052%40N00
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403052@N00/3097766677/

  21. This is a wonderful post – thanks for the link back to Sarah-Ji’s explanation! I’m so stoked! I have to look at every one of these photos now, because I’m becoming a total addict! (TIME! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF YOU!)

    I’m so new at this bokeh thing – I’m only beginning to understand how to create it. Yesterday, I found some wonderful spring bokeh (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8702729@N02/3310052752/) and a few days ago, I deliberately placed it in an abstract refraction shot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8702729@N02/3306967340/). I shot these sandals for the beautiful color bokeh behind (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8702729@N02/3300996022/), and caught the sunrise falling all over the place (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8702729@N02/3292441749/).

  23. I think I understand bokeh. I look for it all over. I don’t however seem to find it much in my photography. I think I may be doing something wrong or perhaps I have the wrong equipment or maybe…it take a true professional?

    Anyway, I think I have it here, in a picture of my little girl. It’s her birthday today.

    http://lifesignatures.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/a-letter-to-the-perfect-girl/

    Love all of your images in the comments. One day I’ll get there!

  25. Thank you SO MUCH for this post! I took up photography to come up with my own reference images for painting. Years ago we were on vacation and there was a hidden garden full of roses and bird-of-paradise. I got a shot of the b-o-p that I love and it has these enchanting circles dancing in the background. It was late afternoon and the light was dappled. Now I know what happened. Thanks again, so much. I will have to play with this more and hope to capture more of the magic.

  36. I’m an in between mix…I love when bokeh graces my photograph with her presence and I like trying to initate the conversation 🙂 One day I am sooo going to actually get that lovely, elusive for me shot of the bokeh rising out of the coffee cup!
    On this one I knew I wanted bokeh but I was surprised at how it turned out…it looks to be rising from the flower almost like a scent 🙂
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyhadding/3311249891/

  40. My post above has a real problem with the links to the 2 bokeh samples I gave — My sincere apologies and many thanks to Daniela for bringing it to my attention! I can’t fix the particular links on this end unfortunately nor can I get into my original post above to plug in correct urls.

    Here are different urls for the same photos — and these will work:

    http://gallery.me.com/dianeschuller#100056/DSC_6331

    and this one is the one with small bokeh balls and big ones:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/27458974@N00/3233753903/sizes/o/

    again, my sincere apologies the previous links were incorrect (I didn’t realize the numbers change daily on my daily portfolio)

  44. i’m so happy to have just run across shutter sisters on flickr! & now am thoroughly enjoying the blog. i am also a lover of dof shots & recently learned about bokeh – i love that you have take up the challenge / obsession to ‘do’ bokeh – i’m still in the magically / mystery stage – if i get it i just feel lucky!

    this must be bokeh week i wrote a quicky about it on my blog on the 24th! http://365daysofdifferent.blogspot.com/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbeat/3285746113/

  47. I have to move through it slowly like wading in the shallows of the sea. Baby steps. Baby steps.Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article