A Lesson in Bokeh

If you've never heard of bokeh before, you're not alone.  In fact, up until a few months ago, I would have thought it was the name of a Polish dessert or something (I'm just being real, here).


Bokeh is a photography term.  According to Wikipedia, bokeh is “the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image.”

Let me put this in clearer focus for you (hah).

See those round, colorful, wonderfully blurry orbs made by the out-of-focus christmas lights?  That's bokeh.  And it's pretty.

A few weeks ago, I started seeing pictures of shaped bokeh.

Heart-shaped bokeh and the Dutch Sinterklaas

I was amazed.  And I wanted to recreate it.

So I found a tutorial, and I couldn't believe how simple it was.  A few dark scraps of wrapping paper, some tape, and 10 minutes later, I had my tool.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.