Heart Shaped Bokeh Thingy
Posted on 2008-08-31 [direct link] Tags: Art Photo.
I read an article a while ago about a little trick that I really liked. The basic idea is that the construction of a camera lens can cause something called bokeh to occur in your out-of-focus areas. If you have a very shallow depth-of-field (common in portraits and macro) then it can be very noticeable on the final pictures. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, for most people the bokeh is just part of the look of a photo, and I quite like it.
On portraits its nice to have the background all blurry and out of focus because it picks out the subject matter and makes it easy for the viewer to know what they're supposed to be looking at. If you have bright spots or light sources in the background then they can show up as bright round blobs. Thats the bokeh. On some lenses the blobs can have straight edges, and snobs will look at those straight edges and sneer because you have a cheap lens. The photosnobs have expensive optics ground by virgins and blessed by ninjas and monks, so sneering is appropriate.
As a cheap lens man the article interested me because it allows you to hide the straight edges. They may sneer about the horrendous noise from your cheap sensor but lens construction will be off the agenda. The same site that ran the article recently did a follow up. I was well and truly reminded.
So tonight I gave it a 10 minute go. I haven't actually got a suitable lens to hand at the moment... my 50mm f1.8 will hopefully be here later in the week for some proper attempts, but I thought it was worth a crack on my 70-300mm Tele-Macro affair. The result was a very dodgy self-portrait. But it showed the idea had legs.. and I will be back some day to do something better.
Step one involved a cereal box and some tape. Very complicated stuff this. Then the mask was wedged into the hood.
Posted on 2008-08-31 [direct link] Tags: Art Photo.
I read an article a while ago about a little trick that I really liked. The basic idea is that the construction of a camera lens can cause something called bokeh to occur in your out-of-focus areas. If you have a very shallow depth-of-field (common in portraits and macro) then it can be very noticeable on the final pictures. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, for most people the bokeh is just part of the look of a photo, and I quite like it.
On portraits its nice to have the background all blurry and out of focus because it picks out the subject matter and makes it easy for the viewer to know what they're supposed to be looking at. If you have bright spots or light sources in the background then they can show up as bright round blobs. Thats the bokeh. On some lenses the blobs can have straight edges, and snobs will look at those straight edges and sneer because you have a cheap lens. The photosnobs have expensive optics ground by virgins and blessed by ninjas and monks, so sneering is appropriate.
As a cheap lens man the article interested me because it allows you to hide the straight edges. They may sneer about the horrendous noise from your cheap sensor but lens construction will be off the agenda. The same site that ran the article recently did a follow up. I was well and truly reminded.
So tonight I gave it a 10 minute go. I haven't actually got a suitable lens to hand at the moment... my 50mm f1.8 will hopefully be here later in the week for some proper attempts, but I thought it was worth a crack on my 70-300mm Tele-Macro affair. The result was a very dodgy self-portrait. But it showed the idea had legs.. and I will be back some day to do something better.
Step one involved a cereal box and some tape. Very complicated stuff this. Then the mask was wedged into the hood.
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[2008-08-31 at 20:30 (updated 2 times)]
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