I have received alot of submissions over the last few days – I am loving everyone’s work!

However, I have had several photos sent that are not really in line with our December assignment.  I have tried to email everyone back as soon as I received their email, to let them know and to allow them enough time to re-submit another photo , but as we are wrapping up this assignment in the next hour, no more emails will be sent.

As I mentioned to many of you, I think that I may not have been very clear in my tutorial so I am going to try to explain it more thoroughly so even if the assignment deadline is over, you can still practice and try your hand at mastering this technique, which can be spectacular when done correctly.

Depending on who you ask and what you read, the term bokeh can mean several things.  As I tried to describe in my tutorial, I consider bokeh to be circular-type light sources (i.e. Christmas lights, candles, patches of sunlight through trees…) in the out-of-focus section of a photo.  To show you an example, I photographed this Santa ornament tonight:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/15 sec., ISO 800

(Please ignore the grainy-ness – in my haste, I forgot to set my ISO back to 200.)

Note the circles of light that are my Christmas tree lights in the background?  Bokeh.  The more circular and out of focus, the better, in my opinion!  But of course, depending on your settings and desired effects, you may feel differently.

Lori McLellan, of Calgary, AB, sent me this AWESOME photo of bokeh – aren’t those large circles of light such a beautiful backdrop for her ornament?

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel at f/2.8, 1/50 sec., ISO 1600

 Corry Heinricks, of Silver Valley, AB, also highlighted this sweet snowman with her Christmas tree lights:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTI at f/6.3, 1/25 sec., ISO 800

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/4.5, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/2.8, 1/1250 sec., ISO 1000

Teresa McNutt, of Truro, NS, too, this photo looking through her patio door, with the winter storm creating some subtle bokeh:

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/5.0, 1/800 sec., ISO 400

And Natalka Lindstrom, of Edmonton, AB, took this photo of the Meerkat at the Atlanta Zoo, using the diffused light through the reeds to create bokeh:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/5.3, 1/500 sec., ISO 200

So how do you achieve bokeh?  Well, the trick is to use the largest aperture setting that you can, given your camera capabilities and your lighting.  The larger the setting (i.e. lower the f/stop number), the more blurred and pretty your bokeh will be!  Here are two examples that I photographed tonight to show you the difference between settings:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/9, 1/6 sec., ISO 800

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/15 sec., ISO 800

Note the difference in light with the larger f/stop – the bokeh consists of larger circles and provides a less distracting background.

I hope that helps to clarify things a bit – my apologies for confusing anyone!  There’s about an hour left to submit your photos so if you haven’t already done so, please do!  We’ve love to see!

And don’t forget about our contest – click here for more info!

Happy Clicking!