Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Bokeh, Not Boca...

Whenever I take pictures for more than one reason each day, I often think "well, I'll save these extra photos for my next post in case I don't do anything cool tomorrow".. But then I feel like I should post it anyway, that way when tomorrow comes around I am forced to do something cool! So here is yet another day of double posts ~
I feel like I have slowed down on my Polaroid pictures lately, so I was trying to find cool things to do to "spice it up". I have been wanting to try "bokeh" pictures.. a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.. basically something with a shape cut out is covering the lens and the lit areas take that shape. When I used my Polaroid camera later in the afternoon, it came out differently. In a cool way, but more like a border.

When the sun was completely gone for the day, I played around with the shutter speed and was thoroughly entertained when I began racking the focus while the shutter was open! I've seen bokehs mostly at night, so I tried that too. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, mainly because I was confused at first of how to get it right and also I don't think we have enough lamps in our complex? I'll try again another night when Michael is able to help me and I've learned more about it.


3 comments:

  1. Well I think they came out EXTREMELY cool!! I like the night shots that look like floating hearts and stars, and the light sabers :) and I like the polaroid cut outs- especially the heart shaped one!! Looks like you are having fun learning! :) xoxoxooxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find this topic very interesting. I have never heard of bokeh before, but I like the results that you came up with. And I appreciate seeing the camera lens with paper cutout, and the resulting photo. Great combination for a blog! Thanks for taking the time to do all the Posting work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have you read my post about the Canon 50mm lenses and the bokeh different quality lenses can produce? It might help complete your view of bokeh and let you identify more pleasing bokeh compared to a less attractive and distracting kind.

    ReplyDelete