Its a Holiday "How to" - Holiday Lights Bokeh Tutorial

 

‘Tis the season for X-Mas trees, ornaments, jingle bells, My Uncle Kevin popping up in photos giving the photographer the finger, the annual watching of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and Christmas light bokeh in your holiday photos. So how can you get these gorgeous orbs in your images?

How to get beautiful blurry Christmas light bokeh:

Tip 1: Choose your lens with the largest aperture possible. You will need a low aperture which equates to a wide open aperture. f/1.4, f/1.8 is good. f/5.6+ is not good.

Tip 2: In order to get circles, your lens’s aperture must be at its most open. If not, you’ll get star bursts… now those can be great looking, but not the true bokeh effect we are going for.

Tip 3: The farther away your main subject is from the lights, the larger the orbs will appear. If you want tiny sparkles, put your subject close to the lights. If you want big glowy orbs, pull the subject away from the light source.