(2012 Pitcavage Tree)
As I became more aware of other people's photography abilities I became more aware of my lack of knowledge on matters such as lighting and anything that goes beyond lighting. I started reading about aperture, ISO, f-stop, shutter speed, etc., and all I can gather is those things have to do with lighting.
One friend on facebook posted some impressive photos of her baby in front of the Christmas tree using bokeh. Ever since then I have been obsessed with capturing bokeh with my own camera. Bokeh is described as a blur in a photo that is pleasing to the eye. All the blurry photos I take in manual mode are not artistic and do not count as bokeh. What interests me most is bokeh in regards to light, specifically Christmas lights. With the right lens and settings, the trees on your lights become round orbs of light that are very aesthetically pleasing. After a year of thinking about it, and after finding some tutorials on pinterest, and after trying Jim's 35 mm lens I was able to get a few pictures with bokeh. Next year I need to acquire a 50mm lens with an aperture of 1.4. I don't know what that means, all I know is it will make my pictures better and the bokeh better.
(My tree with different camera settings to create a more severe bokeh effect.)
My first attempts at bokeh were at night with Lilly as my model. I wasn't happy with how many of them turned out. After using Lilly and (later on) Jack as models I realized that I needed to photograph something that wouldn't move so I could set my camera appropriately.
If you look at the tree, the lights are blurry, creating slight bokeh with their small orbs of light. Lilly is not blurry but she is also a little darker than what I wanted and the bokeh is not what I wanted. In most of my attempts the entire picture was blurry, which again is not aesthetically pleasing. So this was my first small success.
Then I kept my camera settings the same and had her reach up to point to an ornament. This kind of made her look photo shopped but she was in focus which was another success.
Then I tried turning on the overhead light to see what would happen. There was more light but it created an odd effect that made it look like she was standing in front of a blue screen with a fake background, but the bokeh is in place, however small.
After that I sent her to bed and continued to try different settings. I decided that I needed to try the next morning in the day light with Jack as my model.
Do you see the bokeh in between Jack's hat and arm? Success! He is a little blurry but the day time lighting is so much better and the bokeh orbs are bigger!
It didn't last more than two minutes because Jack became very sad that I kept telling him to sit still.
I put my camera away for a few days and pulled it out again last night after the children were asleep to try with some inanimate objects to see if I could have any more success.
(Lilly's manger she received when she was three from her nursery leader.)
The bokeh was exactly what I wanted! Now I have to figure a way to get my children to remain perfectly still so I can use them instead of a manger so my picture doesn't look like a cheesy Christmas card one might find in the .99 aisle of the card section.
I may have just created a new line of Christmas cards for the dollar store.
This is the advent wreath Lilly made at a friend's church. I think this picture could be used by my local NBC station to run Christmas morning during commercial breaks. My point is, I needed to use objects to practice getting the bokeh look that I wanted and I just grabbed what was around me. My goal is to one day have my children replace the tacky Christmas decor. My other point is that photography is really difficult for me!! One day I hope to take a class and get some other lenses and take pictures that don't look lame. I am not one of those people who think that since I own an SLR that I am a photographer, but I would like to take advantage of my Nikon and take better pictures of my children.
In the mean time I hope you enjoy my new line of .99 cards....
3 comments:
Well, I learned a great deal - and love your pictures, every one. I am impressed that you are adding yet another talent to your repertoire!
Oh, Liz - your photos and bokeh are beautiful!
I know, those darn kids can never hold still enough to get that perfect picture. Maybe when your baby comes along, you can capture bokeh when they are sleeping.
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