How to capture Bokeh and look goofy while doing it....

First off here is the definition of Bokeh.

 Bokeh, according to the great online reference that is Wikipedia, is  "the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."

  Huh....that definition  seems so bland in comparison to the actual event when viewed in a portrait. Here is a living breathing example of it

Wowzers!  

(Hope you don't mind me tooting my own horn here)  

Here's how to capture it....

Capturing a shot that has great bokeh is not as hard as it appears.  In my humble and NON professional opinion, capturing these shots is all about angles and lighting.  The angles of where your lighting source is coming from, the object you are photographing, and then the camera.  I have always had the best luck by putting my subject between the camera and the light source.  Typically you can see the tiny bubbles of light through your viewfinder when you go to snap your photo.  So get down and get low.  Try different angles you haven't tried before.  You might surprise yourself.

Now the looking goofy part.......

Can you believe that I got this baby less than five feet from my front door?  Yesterday morning as I was taking out our dog Daisy Mae when I noticed the grass was all dewy.  Mostly because at the time I was wearing my pj's and flip flops and was highly annoyed my feet were getting wet.  But I digress....I almost let this magical moment pass me by.  Like I said I was annoyed about my wet feet, but being the photo hound I am, I muscled my way through it.  So back out I went pjs, flip flops, and camera in hand and promptly got down on my belly and got to snapping.  It is times like these that I wish I had a macro lens.  That way I wouldn't have to belly crawl while in my front yard trying to get my focus just right, while all my neighbors watch wondering...

 "just what in tar-nation that crazy lady is up to now." 

Took me about five minutes of belly crawling but man was it ever worth it. This has to be the best shot I have ever captured with so much bokeh.  And I was so close to not getting it. Never be afraid of looking foolish when in the pursuit of your passions.  It only hinders the wonder that is you.  If you hide it...how then can you and others around you appreciate the miracle of life that is uniquely you!  So get out there and belly crawl if you have to.  Sing loud and proud even if you are a bit off key.  Because there is no one else on the face of this planet that is exactly like you!  So go on and get out there......discover what you may have been missing.

Teresa

The Joy of Editing.....with Picasa!

You have the perfect spot.....you got everyone looking at the camera......the Heavens have aligned.... you press the shutter button and capture the PERFECT MOMENT!

Rapture!  It feels great, wonderful and exciting! You hurry home to show all your friends and family only to discover that something went awry.

AGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Well have no fear there are many photo editing programs and tricks that can help you salvage your precious capture. The good news is some of them are even FREE!

First let me find a example picture...

Our lovely model today is my very daughter  ; )

Okay you may be saying that there isn't a whole lot wrong with this picture, Right?

I have to tell you for the most part I would agree with you. She has a great expression and has a great sparkle in her eyes. But the evening we took this we had the most gorgeous light, color temperature is off and her face is just a bit darker than I would like it.  So lets see what we can do to fix it, shall we? 

One of my favorite FREE programs to use is Picasa. .Here's a link to get ya there.

  http://picasa.google.com

 Very beginner friendly and easy to use.  Good for basic fixes and has a good selection of "artistic" features.

First off I want to lighten her face and adjust the temperature (fancy way of saying color adjustment) of the overall picture.  Both of these are found under the tuning tab in Picasa. Okay lets see how that worked out for me......

OH That is much better!  Hmmm....I think it needs a little bit of sharpening, so lets do that next.  That is located under the effects tab.  Zoom in on your picture so you can get a really good look at what your are doing with this one. 

 The saying "if a little is good...more is better" DOES NOT apply here!  Too much sharpening can create what we photogs call "noise".  It's that funny speckling or pixelation that happens when you uber sharpen your photos.  Do just enough to bring all your details into a clean focus.  You will like you results a lot better if you do this.

From there we can start to have fun with it.  Add all sorts of effects, B/W, Sepia, Soft Focus so on and so forth.  Lets' see how she looks with some of those.

last picture was edited with Piknik a online editing program partner of Picasa

There a not so great picture saved!  So what are you waiting for?  Get brave, go put on your creative britches and start creating something special.  I would love to see what you all come up with.