autumn's sparkeh

If you recall I received a postcard from Summer earlier this year -  she dumped me. It was sad but it needed to happen. I was becoming way too dependent on her anyhow. I quickly rebounded to a handsome fellow called Autumn. ohh he was dreamy and knew just what to say. He was full of charisma & held unexpected elegance & spontaneity. In the morning we would be bundled up in wool, romping though the grass with toques on only to have the afternoon shine down the sun's warmth leaving us stripped to bare skin holding hands by the lake.  But alas he was just passing through with the carnival again this year and needed to get back on the road. I am alone once again. I have a feeling I am going to hunker down in this solitary season for awhile. I think I need some me time. If my relationship with Autumn taught me anything, is was to follow the light and get yourself some bokeh brilliance every chance you get. You never know when the next twist of light will come to give you a beautiful blurry sparkle.

I wonder what kind of love affair my Autumn had with Ciscolo. This image is breathtakingly gorgeous - I can only imagine the day they had together.

keep on keeping on muser peeps,
michel of wishful thinking

delicious autumn 154/365 by Ciscolo

bling bling bokeh

I love me some yummy bokeh!  I just want to grab a spoon and scoop it up it is so delicious.  Do you want to know my secret for this photo?  Dun dun dun....  TINFOIL!  Yup I sort of cheated, but only because it is cold outside and I don't want to go searching for my own.  Have you tried this?  It is so much fun, all you have to do is get a piece of tinfoil, crinkle it up, wrap it around a piece of cardboard (a flattened cereal box is what I used) set it on a chair/table/ottoman next to a window and voila!  Oh and if you want some extra bling spray the tinfoil with a water bottle. 

Also as a note it would be best to have a macro lens or a lens with a really wide aperture to make this work.  I used my 50mm f/1.4 lens in M mode, my settings: ISO 100, exposure 1/200, at f/1.4.  A telephoto would also work, though tricky in the house if you don't have enough light.  If you don't have any of those lenses, just make sure your subject is as far away as possible from the tinfoil to get some bokeh (and makes sure your lens is as wide, smallest f-stop number, as possible)

I love the bling'n beach bokeh from amycliff.  It is so sparkly and delicious! 

Thanks for sharing all your wonderful bokeh in the flickr pool!  Bokeh makes me happy :)  Until next time!

April of april's 365

296/365 Beach Bokeh by amycliff

the bokeh hunter

Sometimes I feel like the bokeh hunter. There's a shortcut just near me, a narrow path enclosed by trees; I call it bokeh alley. My family laugh when I tell them I am going down bokeh alley where everything is magical and my camera and I get to have some quality time together. Those trees are the best at making that light so special; isn't it lovely the way you can get bokeh not just from the light bouncing off leaves, but also as it squeezes between the bare branches? Here is Miles picking a windfall apple; and there's that evening light doing that bokeh thing again, transforming bare branches into something else quite magical.

Holly is a mistress of beautiful bokeh; I chose this picture of hers because again the light is pushing around those branches and reflecting off the leaves to make a wonderful combination of twinkly and colourful bokeh.

See you all next time for some gratitude.

kirstin
x

Giving Thanks by soupatraveler

bokeh addict

Hello everyone. My name is maureen and I'm a bokeh addict. There. It's out. Bokeh was almost the sole reason for my desire for a DSLR. I wanted to be able to take those cool photos with the blurry background I saw on Flickr and blogs. Before I really understood what bokeh is, or how it's done, I knew that's what I wanted to capture. I couldn't wait to get a nifty-fifty [50mm f/1.8] as soon as I got my camera. I shoot with that lens ninety-eight percent of the time, and ninety-eight percent of the time I shoot f/1.8. I love bokeh background that's silky, smooth, blurred color bokeh and I love bokeh background (and sometimes foreground) that's full of those yummy bokeh circles (or hearts, if you have bokeh fun like Tammy). I'm also beginning to love the challenge of capturing bokeh people in a shot. Yep. It's an addiction, but judging by the Mortal Muse pool, I'm not alone. Oh how I have loved looking at all of the bokeh photos in the Mortal Muse Flickr group. *swoon*

TumblingRun's photo is a lovely example of silky, smooth background bokeh. I paired it with mine to show the same subject, Autumn leaves, brilliant Autumn color, evening light and bokeh done two ways.

As always, thanks so much for participating, for making it so difficult to choose just one photo each time it's my turn here.

♥maureen from cottage 960

little leaf by tumblingrun

best supporting bokeh

I think of bokeh -- lovely, inexplicable, often misunderstood -- as the supporting cast & crew in the drama of a photo.  Not the lead but the stand-in, the lighting director, the prop mistress, the make-up man.  Without bokeh, the main character can be flat, lifeless, light-less.  With it, there just might be a standing ovation.

In my photo above, bokeh's getting ready to take a bow.  In Elizabeth Glass's photo below, bokeh's whooping it up at the cast party. 

Encore!

Until next time.

lucy @ a little light reading

taxi dancers by elizabeth glass

bokeh storytelling

If you've ever watched a Hitchcock film, you know he was the master of suspense.  He was also a master of engaging the audience in an almost physical sense.  In a film lecture years ago, I remember watching a scene of the protagonist in a film (can't remember which one - feel free to shout out!) walking down a hallway and around a corner where the camera couldn't see him.  It prompted an almost universal head tilt from the audience as we all craned our necks to see just what was happening around that corner.  So clever.  Sometimes it's not what is front and center in frame, but the background which intrigues us or heightens our interest or in fact moves the story forward. 

So it is with bokeh for me.  I squint my eyes when looking at photos where something is placed in the background which I can't quite make out.

My story here is a simple one - my image highlighting autumn's intense colours, and loudpicture's photo showing the aftermath.  I chose to pair mine with his because of the textural feel of both photos, the story clear to see whether you're looking with wide open eyes or head-tilted to the side, squinting.

cheers,
mosey

herbst by loudpictures

bokeh-love

I really love to frame a person with soft and silky bokeh. It makes the picture even more interesting when you are wondering what was going on in the background.
This picture was taken this summer on a sunny day at a wedding of one of my friends.

Bokeh and an exact point of focus in a picture can make a huge difference.
I like bokeh more than not like it and sometimes this causes a few problems, when bokeh is somewhere it shouldn't be. ;)
But in the end bokeh makes my heart jump. I live for soft backgrounds in pictures...

My picture today by kellysoji was chosen because I love how this boy's eyes pop. And the colours are oh-so-beautiful.

Love,
Suki of Suki Photography blog

Griffin by kellysoji

shadow bokeh

No, this bokeh was not created by my lens. This bokeh is nature's own. This summer I noticed that the light, coming through the fully leafed-out trees, created this marvelous bokeh on the path I was walking. Have you ever noticed how shadows can be in or out of focus? (See a companion photo on my blog for another shadow focus effect.) I had never really though of it before... but it's just light, coming through an aperture, at various focal distances. It make me realize that bokeh is not just a photographic effect, it's a light effect, and we can capture it in more ways than just having a wide open aperture in our lens.

Today I chose to pair it with this olive photo, by MrsNodders. I loved the fizzy bubble bokeh she was able to capture in this image. An interesting combination of stillness and motion. I had never thought of bubble bokeh before, now I have to go looking for it myself!

Kat of The Kat Eye View of the World

{175/365} by Mrs Nodders

muse university - i heart bokeh

I love bokeh...gorgeous blurry, round, magical bokeh but with the announcement of this prompt, I knew that I wanted to do something different. I was determined to learn how to make some sweet heart-shaped bokeh.

First, I scoured the house looking for black construction paper and finally came up with a piece of brown paper. Close enough, I was in business! Using the small end of the lens hood from my 35mm 1.8, I traced a circle on the paper and cut a heart in the exact center with my husband's pocket knife. With all fingers still intact, I trimmed the circle a bit with a pair of scissors and taped it to the inside of the hood with some blue painter's tape.

With my family laughing at me for making my D90 look like a school craft project, I headed out in search of bokeh producing light. I shot the sunshine streaming through my bouganvillea arbor. I skulked around the neighborhood after dark capturing headlights, street lights, and signal lights. I punched holes in a piece of cardboard and captured the perfect heart-shaped dots that appeared when I placed it in front of a window. I even dug in the attic for our white Christmas lights and added them to our garden hedges to make more defined hearts that you see in photo above. Our neighborhood lawn crew must think that I have lost my mind.

This filter has been on my camera for several days and I am still having fun with the technique. I invite you to visit bliss and folly to see the finished filter and more photos that I took. Get out and try it, experiment with other shapes, and link-up your own photos to the Linky tool that I have provided at bliss and folly.

For my featured photo today, I selected Rose {heart bokeh} by Marie Rush. She was able to capture multi-colored shaped bokeh. She obviously hearts bokeh, too. :)

Until next time. Stay sweet and try adding some extra love to your photos this week.

♥ tammy lee of bliss and folly

Rose {heart bokeh} by marierush

and the next theme is... bokeh

day 240 by april

As shown in these two beautiful photographs by Muse April, bokeh is the splendid purposely out-of-focus light, colors, and shapes that you find in the background of many digital photographs.  Based on the definition from Dictionary.com, Bokeh, pronounced bow-kay or bow-keh, is a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image. But for me, it is best defined as PURE MAGIC!

The goal of this technique is to create a blurred background that is compelling without distracting the viewer’s attention from the main subject of the photo.  This is especially important in portraits.

day 196 {explore} by april

Tips for getting good bokeh...

1.) Set your DSLR camera to manual or aperture priority and use a low f-stop number like f1.4, f1.8 or f2.8 for a large aperture. If more light is required, increase your ISO level instead of switching to a higher f-stop.

2.) To achieve the formation of circles, instead of a general blurring, use a shutter speed faster than 1/50 second.

3.) Get in close to your subject, while keeping the background outside the focus area. If you are trying to create the bokeh effect with only night lights, remember to switch your camera to manual focus.

4.) Consider your background lighting. Avoid backgrounds that are evenly lit since they will create a bland blurring. Seek out spots of light such as street lights, reflections, or unevenly lit textured surfaces.

We look forward to seeing all your magical photos in the flickr pool.  Make sure to visit with us tomorrow when I start musing on "Night" and announce all the winners of our 9 Days of Inspiration giveaway prizes.
 
Until then. ♥ Tammy Lee