Christmas Bokeh

Bokeh, “bouquet”, BOH-KAY, or however else you want to pronounce it, I’m guessing it’s blowing up your IG feed.

I admit it, I’m a big fan of twinkly blurry background lights. So much so, that I don’t really want to take my tree down, like ever, because all of the sudden, indoor pictures aren’t as magical looking anymore.

With a few weeks left of twinkly lights, here are a few tips on how to achieve this effect. There are people out there who know a lot more about this subject, but they’ll also probably lose you at terminology like “depth of field” so I’m gonna try to keep it real simple… mmmmkay?

1. Position child, spouse, dog, coffee, at least 5 feet from the tree. The further, the better in my opinion (the first photo below was taken with Elle about 12 feet away from the tree, the second was taken less than a foot away, see the difference?)

2. Position yourself close to your subject (aka child/spouse/dog/coffee). FYI…coffee or your dog is easier to practice on than your child who refuses to be still.

3. Always try to take photos with a lot of natural light… morning or early noon is ideal. Turn off any overhead lights (they may cast a shadow, and artificial light creates that weird yellow glow).

4. Set your camera to Aperture mode (as a side I use a Canon 80D DSLR camera, and interchange between a 50mm and a 28mm lenses). Don’t worry about what kind of lens you are using, you can achieve the bokeh effect regardless. Back to Aperture mode–on the Canon this is labeled as “Av” on the round dial on the top of the camera, on the Nikon, I believe the dial is labeled“A”.

5. So here is the most difficult part, if you will, because YOU have to change your aperture yourself to the lowest setting, this is described as “f-point” and looks like this: f/1.8, f/2.2, f/4.0, etc. Your camera may or may not have the letter “f” followed by the numbers, but you should be able to turn the little dial to your lowest “f-point”. With both of my lenses, the lowest “f-point” is f/1.8.

6. You are now ready to take your photos. Get down to the level of your subject, remember to be close to them. Like, not all up in their face (although I was totally up in Elle’s face, as seen by her reaction in the picture below, HA) but also not 20 feet away. Press your shutter button (that button you take pictures with) half way to focus, and then press it down all the way.

7. Ta-da!!! If it worked, YAY! If your photo came out too dark or too light, check your ISO. I know, I know, another annoying term. The good news is, if you’re just starting out, and don’t want to bother with this, set the ISO on Auto, and your camera will decide how sensitive it will be to the light it lets in. Keep in mind, the higher the ISO… like 800 and above, the grainier the photo will be (also more on this later), but don’t worry about this for now, since this is all about the BOH-KAY!