Bokeh

Bokeh is a form of utilizing the blurred area of an image that has a shallow depth of field. By creating a hood over the front of the lens with a small hole (of any shape) cut out of it in the center, this allows you to alter the shape of any light source that is within the blurred area of the image. This can be a really nice effect when taking close up, shallow aperture images, and makes things seem more surreal.

 In an experiment of my own using Bokeh, I will be using a hand made hood to go over the front of my lens and a custom design for the viewing hole so that the orbs of light are different shapes within the final image. The subject of my experiment will be water which if done well can be really effective with the shimmering light on top of the water. I will need to pay attention to aperture and focus when taking these photos to achieve the best results.

For my own Bokeh experiment I used a tripod to set up my camera in front of a small pond making sure I was in line with the suns reflection of the waters surface. I began by testing out the process by taking a series of photos that transitioned from a fully focused deep depth of field to a shallow depth of field,showing the points of light on the water becoming these circular shapes. In order for you to see the transition I used a GIF creator to show the process a little better.

Afterwards I proceeded to use my home made lens hoods that I had cut small shapes into and secured them to the lens of the camera with elastic bands. After aligning the holes to the center of the lens I began to take photos using a shallow depth of field. The first hood I used was one that I had cut out a diamond shape.

The Diamond shaped hood worked well in creating a diamond shape in certain areas of bokeh towards the edge of the image, however the sheer amount of light reflecting off the water meant all of the points of light seemed to blur together in the center, making it seem too bright. One of the nice features about using this hood for the photo shoot meant the entire image became warped to the diamond shape I had cut out of it, almost creating a fish eye effect.

The second attempt at shaped bokeh worked a little better but some of the same problems seemed to occur within the image. The shape I had cut out of the hood was a skull and crossbones, this worked better than the Diamond attempt as the shapes were a lot more readable and recognizable. Although the amount of reflected light yet again caused the same problem with a mass of bokeh in the center many of the points of light towards the edge of the image showed a great result with a clear shape of a skull and crossbones.

My bokeh experiment using both shaped and circular bokeh has worked well, but with problems in areas such as too much light being reflected into the camera, it might be worth re-visiting this method using different sources of my subject of water.

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