Photography

Heart Bokeh

Posted on February 14, 2012 By Colleen

So I got a Canon Rebel this past Christmas from Corey and have since taken more pictures than I have probably taken in my whole life.  I have also started to learn some fancy photography terminology.  Well kind of.  What I previously referred to as “blurry background in the pretty picture” is actually called a bokeh. I learned this from a fantastic photography workshop that I attended taught by the fabulous Abigail Seymour.  After seeing all of these neat heart bokeh shots, including the one in Megan’s post yesterday, I decided that I wanted to try to take a heart bokeh picture.  Thanks to Kevin and Amanda’s tutorial, I was able to.

Pretty cool right?

And Pica just happened to walk into view.  Okay that’s a bold faced lie.  Meg had to feed her approximately 57 treats for her to stay in place long enough to get one picture.  She may have gained 5 pounds in 10 minutes.  Anywho, I think this little trick opens up a whole world of neat pictures.  Corey and I passed a street of trees filled with sparkle lights the other night and I almost made him take me back to the house to get my camera so I could get a heart bokeh picture.  It is debatable whether he would have actually done it.

And also.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

 

  1. Lacey

    So cool and so pretty! Can’t wait to try it. That tutorial is really great too…thanks for sharing!

  2. dad

    You continue to amaze me!

  3. Mrs. Limestone

    That is super cute!

    Is it possible to take a ‘normal’ photo with the subject in focus and the heart bokeh in the background with this technique?

  4. Colleen

    Hi Mrs. Limestone!

    It is definitely possible. Kevin and Amanda actually gave details on that too in their tutorial under “custom christmas tree bokeh”. I think the trick is to get your subject really far away from the tree (or string lights, etc) and focus on them with the lights in the background. You might want to turn up the ISO to 1600 as well. I think they gave the settings in their tutorial. They are super smart. http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/tutorials/photography-tutorials/must-get-christmas-pictures-before-the-tree-comes-down.html