Christmas is a magical time of year, and it’s always fun to add some extra sparkle to your images. Bokeh is a popular technique that photographers use to create a more artistic look in their shots.
In this article, we’ll show you how to shoot Christmas bokeh in your holiday portraits.
What Is Bokeh?
Bokeh: The word comes from Japanese “boke” which means “out of focus” and it was first introduced to the Western world by the Japanese photographer Yasumoto Kyosai who is considered the father of modern landscape photography.
Bokeh is the natural, beautiful, artistic background blur that you can find in nature, in portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. This artistic effect is very popular with amateur photographers and professionals alike and is becoming more and more popular. This type of bokh has been used by artists and photographers since the Middle Ages and is used to create various effects such as soft, blurred backgrounds and soft, blurred subjects (see some of the examples below).
There are three main elements that determine the appearance of the bokeh:
– the aperture – which controls the amount of light that enters the camera lens;
– the focal length of the lens – which determines how much of the surrounding scenery is captured in the photograph;
– the position of the subject.
It is very difficult to control all three elements, but you can try to achieve a pleasing effect by adjusting one of these elements while keeping the other two constant.
The main thing that separates bokeh from other types of blur is that it’s always circular rather than being elliptical or oval shaped like when you use a wide aperture setting on your camera lens. The reason for this is because it was originally created using an old-fashioned lens with an aperture that had round edges instead of sharp ones.
Bokeh has become very popular among professional photographers recently because it adds another dimension to their work. The technique can be used on any object or scene, not just portraits or people — anything that catches your eye can be made into something beautiful with this technique!
Tips to take aamzing Christmas Bokeh
Bokeh, the out-of-focus area in a photograph, has become a popular thing to shoot. It’s not hard to do, and it can be beautiful.
The bokeh effect is achieved when you use a shallow depth of field to blur the background while keeping the subject in focus.
So how do you create this effect? First, you need a lens with an aperture of f/2 or smaller. If your budget doesn’t allow for that kind of purchase, consider buying an adapter ring that will let you use other lenses on your camera body. Then set your camera on a tripod and make sure the lighting is even across the entire frame.
If you’re using artificial light for your shots, set up at least one light source behind your subject so it’s casting light through them toward the camera. This will create an ethereal glow around your subject and make them stand out against their background as well as provide more detail from shadows cast on their face from external sources such as Christmas lights or candles in windows across the street or down the block from where you’re shooting.
Use an ultra-wide lens (such as 16mm) and shoot wide open (at f/1.4). This will give you maximum separation between your subject (whether it be people, food or decorations) and the background, which results in a dramatic effect when combined with Christmas lights or Christmas trees.
Shoot near Christmas lights or Christmas trees — preferably both! The combination of bright lights and bokeh creates an amazing effect that will make your photos stand out from the crowd.
Get your aperture wide open. This is the most important step. You want as much light in your photo as possible. The wider the aperture, the more light that comes through the lens and onto your sensor, which will make your subject pop out of the background. If you have a good portrait lens, you can go as low as f/1.4 or even f/2 if you need it. If not, just go up to f/2.8 or f/4 if you need it for exposure reasons.
Use a tripod (or at least be very still). It’s easier than you’d think to accidentally move when shooting with such a wide aperture, so having something steady like a tripod will help keep everything nice and sharp all around!
Use manual focus instead of autofocus (if possible). Autofocus struggles with subjects that are very close up like this since they’re usually too small for the autofocus points to detect them properly; however, manual focus won’t struggle at all because there’s no distance change when focusing manually!
Choose a lower ISO setting. The higher your ISO setting, the less noise there will be in your image after being processed by your camera’s software. However, this also means that there will be more graininess and less detail in your photo overall due to overexposure.