Shaped Bokeh!

[jcauthen]

Haven't ever posted, but have been reading the forums for a while.

I decided to give this a shot, but wanted to throw a person into the mix (partially because it let me test out a few shots for a film photo class I'm taking.)

It was a bit difficult to get everything working together, but I think I managed to pull it off.






I know.. horrible placement of the watermark..

I used a sheet in front of the lights as a diffuser, and to hide the green cord of the Christmas lights.

C&CC are welcomed.
/jim

[prasanthag]

Hi.. Just a very basic(dumb) question. How do you get multiple shapes in the image with just one shaped hole in the paper over lens?

[wulf]

Each out of focus point of light will create a new copy of the shape.

Wulf

[prasanthag]

so.. more the number of sources of light, more shapes in image.. ?

[Tiddleywinks and More]

Originally Posted by prasanthag

Hi.. Just a very basic(dumb) question. How do you get multiple shapes in the image with just one shaped hole in the paper over lens?

Here's my basic answer: the mulitple shapes come from having multiple light sources, such as a string of Christmas lights.

[sognoinunastella]

I lvoe this and i can't seem to get it.

I understand how you place the paper with the cut out on your camera lens and unfocus to create the images of your shape .

But hwo to do get the shapes as well as the cookie??

like pretend ur teaching some.

go step bys tep on how you would do this.

Because I'm a slower learner and i jsut dont get it.

[mseigafuse]

Originally Posted by sognoinunastella

I lvoe this and i can't seem to get it.

I understand how you place the paper with the cut out on your camera lens and unfocus to create the images of your shape .

But hwo to do get the shapes as well as the cookie??

like pretend ur teaching some.

go step bys tep on how you would do this.

Because I'm a slower learner and i jsut dont get it.

What lens and settings are you using? Are you able to get bokeh without the shape? If you can post an example with the EXIF info that would help us provide some direction. Basically you use the largest aperture (smallest f stop) you can to produce the bokeh. There should be some distance between the subject in the foreground and the lights in the background - that distance will help determine the size of the bokeh - but one thing at a time - first lets see if you can get bokeh...

[FocalFrenzy]

In a dimly lit room, clear off a table and put 3 or 4 candles on one end of it. Then place a sheet of construction paper upright (with a shape cut into the center), at the halfway point of the table. Then hold a white sheet of construcion paper a few inches further. You should be able to see the shapes projected through the black paper, onto the white paper. If you could draw a straight line from each candle, through the mask, it would line up perfectly with the light spots on the white paper.

In this example, the white paper represents your cameras' sensor. The black paper represents the mask, and the candles represent the X-mas lights. Being able to see an object placed between the lights and the mask, is possible as long as that object is not a lightsource itself. Focusing on that object helps to put the lights out of focus, thus creating your image. I hope this helps, and I had a fun time demonstrating this for my son. It actually helped cement the whole concept for me as well.

[Boscopix]

Ok, so curiosity got the best of me and last night I tried this out. I didn't have a cool hole punch or cool lights or even construction paper for that matter and since I am in Germany, no 24 hour stores around!

Buuuttt, I used an old post card, and cut out a heart (not a very good heart I might say) and I used candles as my lighting...basically, I just wanted to see how this worked...So, here is what I got!



I found that you have to distance the main subject from the lighting quite a bit to see the shapes, but other than that, I think I get how this is working. Pretty cool I can't wait to try it out with some better lights, and a cool hole punched shape!

[dblaveino]

Very cool... Im going to have to give this a shot sometime!