I made a bokeh filter, and turned this strip of Christmas lights into these floating hearts of love ........ ♥♥
This statue was given to my husband & I as a wedding gift 8 years ago, and I just love it! ♥
@lynne3804 Thanks Lynne! Certainly is a great gift - and we were given one in a similar ilk when we had our first child 18 months ago - a beautiful keepsake & lovely thing to look at each day - makes me smile :)
To make the filter, I taped some black card to the front of my lens with a small heart cut out of the centre. Set my aperture to 1.8, focused on the statue, and then just did lots of playing around with the placement of the flash, background etc until I got a shot that didn't show the wire the lights were attached to, but had enough light to show up the statue. I was very excited with the outcome :)
@timtam_adams YAY!!! Thanks Timbo!!
I was so very excited when it worked..... and almost like what I was actually picturing in my head :).
Maybe the shape you had cut out was too big??
Thanks for the explanation of how you achieved this Rebecca. My aim for next year is to become more technically proficient with my photography. Are you doing a course?
@debmayne thanks my dear! @sarasdadandmom thank you - I'm really pleased with this shot, and processing wise, only applied a little sharpening, this was pretty much an edit-free photo ... I love it when it works straight out of the camera! :) @cmt2812 thanks Kate - I've been learning lots of new things looking at people's photos through this site, plus reading a few books - I thought it would be good to test out some little 'projects' to try and learn some new skills. A lot of it is trial & error, but I'm really enjoying the process.
This picture is so amazing!! I'm still excited when I accidentally get some pretty bokeh in a picture. I can't imagine having heart shaped bokeh. I assume that the black card that you taped to your lens couldn't have covered the whole lens or you wouldn't have been able to capture the statue?? Can I asked where on the lens it was placed? I am in awe!!
@petersonsheri Sorry Sheri... I have just realised I never got back to your comment :(
The black card I taped to the lens did actually cover the entire front, just with a really small heart cut out - don't quite know how it works though, that everything else doesn't get the heart shape. I set my aperture as wide as possible, and I guess this, combined with the paper being as close as possible to the lens allowed me to focus on the foreground and just bokeh out the background. You should give it a try! :)
I tried so hard to replicate this idea today, and I failed miserably. I couldn't seem to get a clear focus on my figurine, and still accomplish the bokeh. I kind of explained the things that I tried in my post and responses. If you have any ideas for me to try, I would be very grateful!!
To make the filter, I taped some black card to the front of my lens with a small heart cut out of the centre. Set my aperture to 1.8, focused on the statue, and then just did lots of playing around with the placement of the flash, background etc until I got a shot that didn't show the wire the lights were attached to, but had enough light to show up the statue. I was very excited with the outcome :)
I was so very excited when it worked..... and almost like what I was actually picturing in my head :).
Maybe the shape you had cut out was too big??
@sarasdadandmom thank you - I'm really pleased with this shot, and processing wise, only applied a little sharpening, this was pretty much an edit-free photo ... I love it when it works straight out of the camera! :)
@cmt2812 thanks Kate - I've been learning lots of new things looking at people's photos through this site, plus reading a few books - I thought it would be good to test out some little 'projects' to try and learn some new skills. A lot of it is trial & error, but I'm really enjoying the process.
The black card I taped to the lens did actually cover the entire front, just with a really small heart cut out - don't quite know how it works though, that everything else doesn't get the heart shape. I set my aperture as wide as possible, and I guess this, combined with the paper being as close as possible to the lens allowed me to focus on the foreground and just bokeh out the background. You should give it a try! :)