bokeh how-to

It's New Year's Eve Day, and I'm finally posting a Christmas-y photo. Better late than never, I say. Besides getting everyone's fun photos in the mail, another reason I love Christmas is for capturing the lights. This year I didn't get out much, but I did enjoy my own little tree at home.

If you tree is still up, you can try this too. Bokeh is the background blur in an image. It's a made from tiny bits of light that are out-of-focus. In my Christmas tree photo, the bokeh became the subject of my photo. You'll want to shoot at a wide aperture. In the photo below, I used my Tamron 28-75mm at f/2.8, the widest or most open aperture available. Switch to manual focus so that you're actually turning the focusing right yourself, and play around until you get an effect that you like.

It takes just a little practice, but it's a fun effect. Have fun! And, Happy New Year's Eve!