How to capture “bokeh” photos with a DSLR
By Mishelle Lane | Leave A Comment
By Mishelle Lane | Leave A Comment
So, you say you want to know how to get that great bokeh effect in your photos?
It’s simple, really.
With a DSLR camera:
- Use a lens that offers you the lowest f-stop (personally I would choose my 50mm f/1.4)
- Put it into AV mode,
- Set the aperture value to the lowest possible which is really the widest aperture,
- Now set a focal point,
- Shoot and oooo and ahhh over all the beautiful bokeh!
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oooooo
ahhhhh
They look great!
Nice tip! You can also get a cool effect where the foreground is sharp and background is out of focus, but the colorful backround is “pressed” closer together visually by using a telephoto or long lens, say 180mm and higher. Shoot the subject the same way you’ve mentioned and again use the widest aperture opening like 2.8 on a good lens. You get a nice effect of splashes of color with very specific focus and limited depth of field on your subject area. You can visit my Flickr page for my pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_cassidy/
Blissfully-
Tom
Thomas Rohe
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Hi, what you refer to above is low depth of field, i.e. where areas of the image are noticeably out of focus.
Bokeh is the quality of these out of focus areas, i.e. whether they are smooth, or slightly jarring, etc.
You are correct in noting that mainly a DSLR is required to get this effect – this is all down to 3 things:
- sensor/ film size
- lens focal length
- lens aperture
The smaller the film/ sensor size, the more inherent depth of field, thus with compact digital cameras it is difficult to take an out of focus shot mostly, as the depth of field is so large.
Focal length is also a factor, with wide angle lenses having an inherently larger depth of field than a longer, telephoto lens.
Thirdly the aperture; with a large aperture (f1.8, f2.8, etc) selected the depth of field will be smaller than with a smaller aperture (f8, f11, etc.) selected.
Hope this helps clarify;
Depth of field = quantity of out of focus areas
Bokeh = quality of out of focus areas
Damien