How to create blurred dots of lights – Christmas bokeh effect?

What would the holiday season be without the lights? In todays post I want to guide you through how you can use light chains to get a blurred dots look on your photos. It is funny, because I have a visual impairment that allows me to see these blurry dots of lights every time I take off my glasses. This is the effect that I am talking about. It is called bokeh. Read below if you are curious how to create and control it in your photos.

To get the effect you will need:

• a bright lens – the lower the aperture values the better the effect. If you have a lens with values between f/1.2-f/2.8 that would be great. Higher values can also give you the effect, but then you will have to have the light placed further away from he scene.
• something to connect the lights to a wall or other surface. I used removable pads.

Tip 1

The smaller the aperture value, the bigger the dots of lights. The first image was taken using aperture with a value f/1.4 and the second one was f/2.5. See the difference in diameter of the light circles.

Tip 2

The darker the image, the more visible the dots of light will be. Look how the dots pop up more on the second image.

Tip 3

The further away the object in focus in relation to the light chain, the bigger the dots. If you want the dots of lights to be bigger, move the scene closer to the camera or move the lights further away from the photographed scene.

Tip 4

Placing the light chain along the photographed scene can give you some creative effects. Look at the big dot of light in the left bottom corner on the image below. Play with placing the light chain slightly behind or in front of the photographed scene and very close to the lens.

Tip 5

Cut out a shape in a paper and place it in front of the camera (so it touches the lens) to change the shape of the bokeh. I am not sure how useful it is, because the whole image looks like it would be behind some sort of fog. But you can try and figure out if you could use it for something with your photographs.

I hope you liked the blurred dots effect and that the article will convince you to try it with your photos. Let me know if you tried it and got some interesting effects.