LOVE 10/50
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… and in our forums I’ve noticed more and more great Christmas images being shared – some of which feature a technique that is always popular at this time of year – Bokeh Christmas lights shots.

Christmas tree lights II
The technique takes a bit of experimenting and practice but is relatively simple to do. You need some Christmas lights and a camera lens with a reasonably ‘fast’ aperture (or a large aperture).

#ds385 - Red Wool Socks
The key is to shoot at the larger end of your available aperture – this throws the background (and foreground) of your shot out of focus and any Christmas lights in the foreground or background will become little balls of light.

Dreaming about bokeh
As you’ll see in most of the images featured in this series – the technique is particularly good if you also have some element in your shot that is in focus. This ‘subject’ might be a person, a pet, a Christmas decoration or something else.

Gracie
You can make the little balls of light bigger by increasing the distance between your in focus subject and the out of focus lights in the background.

Holiday bokeh
While most of the images in this series have the Christmas lights in the background of the image (behind the subject) it is also possible to create the little bokeh balls of light by putting the lights in the foreground of your image (in front of your subject). You can see this in the image below. The impact is a little different as the bokeh balls will cover part of your subject.

335/365: ¿Que puedo hacer con estas luces que no se haya hecho ya?
Another popular technique is to create different shaped bokeh. You can make stars, hearts or even little snow flakes like the image below.

Joyeux Noël!  Merry Christmas!


My Cat's Starry Christmas



Love a Good Buzz - 347/365
The other way to change the shape of your bokeh balls is to experiment with different apertures. You’ll find that in most cases the larger your aperture the rounder the ball – but go for a slightly smaller aperture you may find your bokeh becomes more hexagonal (or Heptagonal or Octagonal… the number of sides will depend upon how many blades your lens has).

christmas kiss
The different ways of using this bokeh Christmas lights technique is only limited by your imagination. Here are some more examples to give you ideas. Enjoy!

Day Nine

Christmas Ball-keh (Explored!)

bright lights

Day 4 - 25 Days of Christmas 2007

Brighton Clock Tower

magic of the season

love

Light way

lick

Seasons Greetings - Explore 28.12.09

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all my Flickr friends.

Blurry Christmas....

What to my wondering eyes should appear ...

Have a Very Bokeh Christmas

Elvis!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS BOKEH! XXX WWW.SIMONKEEPING.CO.UK

Christmas lights bokeh

2007-0001-0016