Photography Guide: Creating Beautiful BOKEH Effects

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La palabra “bokeh” proviene del japonés y significa “borroso”, “difuminado”, “blurry”. Por lo tanto, cuando hablamos de efecto bokeh nos referimos a la calidad de la imagen fuera de foco entre el sujeto u objeto y el fondo. Ojo que no hablamos de ver un “fondo borroso”, eso es simplemente un fondo fuera de foco. El bokeh es una técnica de composición de imagen. 

Uno de los aspectos fundamentales de esta técnica son las luces que aparecen en el fondo o zona desenfocada.

Ever heard of bokeh before? Here's a a very simple step-by-step guide for creating a good bokeh effect in your photos and videos.

Now there is two basic tips that I recommend you follow to achieve a good bokeh :

  1. ONE: have a lens with a large aperture.
  2. TWO: Take advantage of the distances between the subject and the background.
  3. How it works and how to produce the bokeh
  4. Mi vídeo de YouTube sobre Bokeh

Un efecto llamado Bokeh en fotografía es un tipo de imagen en la que hay un sujeto u objeto principal enfocado con un fondo de luces desenfocadas, pero que crea una composición.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdi8KifNHFU

This would be a basic principle: the more aperture the lens has, the bigger and better the bokeh will be .

If you have a Canon camera, I recommend using this 50mm fixed lens, 1.8 aperture . Produces very good quality bokeh and is quite inexpensive . The only disadvantage is that the lens is made of plastic, so you have to take good care of it because if you drop it … well, let’s not think about that. The point is Take care of it a lot!

In case you don’t have access to a lens like the one mentioned above, the trick is that you play with the possibilities of distance between the subject and the background . That is, try that the location of the photo allows you to move the subject away from the background considerably. This because the further the subject is from the background, the shallower depth of field and therefore better bokeh;)

To produce a good bokeh it is very important to consider the distance between the subject and the background lights.

I describe it to you with examples of specific shots:

This bokeh that you see below is not very strong. why? By the opening.

Ever heard of bokeh before? Here's a a very simple step-by-step guide for creating a good bokeh effect in your photos and videos.

En esta toma la apertura del lente es de 8. Para mejorarlo tenemos que bajar la apertura y abrir el diafragma del lente . Con eso ya vamos a poder producir un bokeh mucho más fuerte. 

Here I show you the progression of the image as I open the diaphragm and lower the aperture:

Ever heard of bokeh before? Here's a a very simple step-by-step guide for creating a good bokeh effect in your photos and videos.

See how it gets better as I open the diaphragm?

If you look at the last picture, the bokeh looks rounder , that is, the image of the brightness of the lights under the effect of bokeh.

And here is another basic principle: the larger the aperture, the rounder the bokeh . Conversely, closing the iris will produce a heptagon-shaped bokeh . Here you can see and compare it:

Which to choose? The truth is that you can use this however you want. It depends on the taste of each person and what they want to do. Play, test, and then decide which bokeh effect to use.

Another important fact: We can not only produce the bokeh after the subject, between the subject and the background, but we can also produce it later . I show you:

In these shots what I did wasmove the object backwards and bring the fairy lights . Look at the examples.

And if you bring the lights closer to the camera, the end result can be with this effect:

Ever heard of bokeh before? Here's a a very simple step-by-step guide for creating a good bokeh effect in your photos and videos.

It looks cute, doesn’t it? Did you see how easy it is?

I hope these tips will help you make a neat bokeh in your photos and in your shots. And you know: dust off those old Christmas lights that you surely have forgotten in a box. Take advantage of this resource and start taking photos, playing games, being creative.

Mi vídeo de YouTube sobre Bokeh

Oh, and if you take some good photos by following these tips, go ahead and post them on Instagram and tag me: @ hannstagram1

Recuerda que en mi canal de Youtube podrás encontrar este y otros tutoriales para ayudarte a producir mejores fotos.