Backlighting

Challenge #1 - Capture Light Bokeh

Have you seen those beautiful little circles of colour and light in the background of photos? It’s called Bokeh and it comes from the Japanese word “boke” meaning blur.

It’s so pretty and not only does it make a gorgeous backdrop for portraits, but it can be the subject in it’s own right too! It’s also one of the most fun aspects of learning photography, being able to capture your own lovely bokeh! And that’s what our first challenge is all about, Capturing Light Bokeh!

And remember - just as I said in this video, the purpose of these challenges is NOT to take perfect photos the first time you try something new… it’s about looking for light, trying new techniques, and exploring your creativity to help you build your skills and motivate and inspire you.

So lets have fun & I can’t wait to see your photos!

Light Bokeh is created when light reflects off, or through, a background; and is then captured with a wide open aperture of your lens.

As light reflects differently off flat surfaces, you’re not likely to see this effect when using a plain wall, for example. Instead, you’ll see it when your background has a little texture, such as light reflecting off leaves in foliage of a garden, or wet grass… or when light is broken up when streaming through trees.

Looking for Light

One of the key take-aways for this challenge is to start paying attention to light & how you can capture it in photos… both to add interest and feeling to your portraits, but as a creative subject in it’s own right. So spend some time wandering with your camera, shooting up through trees into the light, play with your angles and apertures, and see which effects you enjoy.

For this challenge you’ll want to open up your aperture as wide open as your lens allows, which is the smaller f stop numbers, eg. f/2.8. (Have a kit lens? Read here to get the most out of it for capturing blur.)

To get started, you’ll need to be either in manual mode, or aperture priority mode, in order to control your aperture. Then select your aperture for as low as you can, and then balance out your settings (if in manual) to achieve your exposure.

Then use your focusing points to focus on your subject and take your shot. Note that the more distance you have between your subject and the background behind it (e.g., foliage, trees in the distance, lights etc) AND the closer you are to the subject, the better the bokeh will be. So if you’re not successful at first, experiment with distances and watch as the bokeh changes.

In the example below, she was standing about 10 metres infant of the trees and bushes behind her, and the light was reflecting off the wet leaves.

Any location where you have a background that breaks up the light (aka, trees that the sun is setting behind) will help create beautiful light bokeh. Like in the shot on the first page… pretty light straight through the trees.

In the example below the light is coming through the grasses behind her, and not only lighting her from behind, but adding the lovely effect of the reflected light bokeh which adds additional interest, and a whimsical, light feeling to the photos.

f/3.2 SS 1/320s ISO 160

Light bokeh isn’t just from natural light. You can also create beautiful photos with artificial lights. Fairy lights are perfect and fun for capturing twinkle light bokeh… and maybe you could make your Christmas Card super early! (See our Christmas Light Tutorial)

The other way to use lights to create light bokeh is street or city lights. If you have a subject that is a good distance away from the lights (which city/street lights usually are) then that will ensure the lights are blurred enough to give the bokeh effect. For the most effective result the more lights in the frame, the better it will look.

Just remember you need a the widest aperture setting your lens allows!

• Start out by looking for light that’s filtered through something, or reflected of a textured surface. You don’t just want blur.. you want to capture the light itself.

• Set your camera to manual, or aperture priority mode, and set to the lowest aperture you can. If in manual, balance out your remaining settings.

• Focus on your subject, and if you’re not getting enough blur/bokeh… increase the distance between your subject and the background, and bring yourself as close as you can to your subject. (Not lenses such as the 50mm have a minimum focusing distance of about 30cm… macro lenses can get really close)

• Experiment with angles, and positioning of your subject to find the best bokeh.

• Don’t give up if you first don’t succeed… the biggest frustrations lead to the biggest breakthroughs, so keep going.

• Come & share in our Loving Photography with Click Love Grow Community & hashtag your photos: #CLGBacklightChallenge #Day1 #LightBokeh