But as I can't afford it, I've recently tried to go the DIY route with a star shaped bokeh and it did so NOT work out as I planed. Has anyone done this before that can give me some tips? How do you decide on the size of your star, etc.
Is there a blog or something out there that has a PDF template available or something?
My wife gave my a set of "coffee stencils" (the sort they use at Starbucks, etc, when they shake chocolate on a cappucino.) They're a little too big, but still quite nice results. e.g. on Amazon
I would have thought it would be fairly easy to cut shapes out of card.
I did something similar to get my jar of hearts shot. I took a black piece of heavy paper (card stock type) and cut and sized it to make sure it would fit around the edges of the lens with enough room to tape it in place, folded it in half, cut out my shape on the folded edge (about 1-2 cm big) and taped it to the lens. I had to make sure that I taped it all the way around so I didn't get light leaks. It was kinda hard to get it taped and still be able to use the focus ring, but it ended up working out. The link I put in above has a longer lasting and more versatile method. AND if you poke around on that site, you might find some killerjackalope posts....if you want to look for 'em.
The current (Sept/Oct) issue of Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques magazine has an article on how to make bokeh filters for your cam. It is focused on making the bokeh filters - nothing on processing - so you don't need Elements or any other photo processing program to use it.
This was my first try of a bokeh shape. We made a filter of a piece of paper with a tiny ghost cut out of it in the center about 2cm's big. We taped it to the front of the lens. We used a zoom lens for it. With a normal lens it didn't work out.
I did this one with a violet post-it note taped on the front of my lens....it's not AWESOME, but I did spend about 4 seconds making it....(view large to see the shapes)
@marinda It took me a while to figure this out, but I got it eventually. The main thing is, you have to make sure that the shape is no larger than your aperture opening. If you look on the front of your lens, you'll see the hole, and that'll give you an idea of how large to make your shape. One of my lenses is an 18-55, and that has the tiniest hole...about the size of the eraser end of a pencil. If I make it as wide as it can go, it's a little wider than that. My other lens is 55-200, and that, at it's widest is maybe about the size of a nickel, if you know what size that is...your profile says you're from South Africa, so I don't know. Anyway, the smaller lens needs extremely tiny shapes for any bokeh thing to work, while the bigger lens can have larger shapes. I'm planning on getting a 50mm lens soonish, since those have much wider aperture openings. Hope this helps!
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
As for how to do it I'm sure a few months ago a thread was started here saying how to make something similar to that link.
http://www.canon.com.au/worldofeos/learn/get-creative/experimenting-with-bokeh.aspx/?s=bokeh
or
http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_own_bokeh/?s=bokeh
http://365project.org/discuss/tips-n-tricks/3356/boken-kit-home-made
I would have thought it would be fairly easy to cut shapes out of card.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=bokeh+kit&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=7289541689&ref=pd_sl_9foyvfpmve_e
I did something similar to get my jar of hearts shot. I took a black piece of heavy paper (card stock type) and cut and sized it to make sure it would fit around the edges of the lens with enough room to tape it in place, folded it in half, cut out my shape on the folded edge (about 1-2 cm big) and taped it to the lens. I had to make sure that I taped it all the way around so I didn't get light leaks. It was kinda hard to get it taped and still be able to use the focus ring, but it ended up working out. The link I put in above has a longer lasting and more versatile method. AND if you poke around on that site, you might find some killerjackalope posts....if you want to look for 'em.
This was my first try of a bokeh shape. We made a filter of a piece of paper with a tiny ghost cut out of it in the center about 2cm's big. We taped it to the front of the lens. We used a zoom lens for it. With a normal lens it didn't work out.
Good luck with it! ;)