First of all, this is not the ENTRY thread. I'll post that later. This thread is just introducing the topic for this month's contest.
The topic is "Bokeh".
What is bokeh? Bokeh is based on a Japanese word that means "blur". In photography, "bokeh" refers to the blurred out background behind a sharply focused main subject. It's a cool effect. It puts all the attention on your main subject by getting rid of the distracting background detail.
To get bokeh, it helps to use your camera's Manual mode or the Aperture Priority (Av) mode and set a large aperture for your shot. It seems backwards, but smaller f/stop numbers correspond with larger aperture openings. So use a small f/stop number setting, like f/4, f/3.5, f/2.8, etc. Then find a subject to photograph that has some distance between it and whatever is behind it in the background. The greater the distance between the background and your subject, the more blurry the background will become.
This picture kinda shows how focus fades into blur. I focused on the yellow flowers. You can see that the bluebonnets that are close to the yellow flowers are just slightly blurrry, but the bluebonnets farthest away are the most blurry.
If you pick a subject that doesn't have anything close to it, then your subject will standout even more in the photo. In this shot, the sunflower is isolated in front of trees that were a 20-30 yards back in the distance. The trees were completely blurred out while the flower was in focus, so the flower really stands out.
Same thing in this shot, as the trees were a good ways back from the hummingbird....
You get the idea, and hopefully there will be lots of other examples posted on this thread to show how bokeh can be used to make a cool picture. So use this as a chance to get your camera out of Auto mode and begin to learn how you can use your camera to make pictures look how you want them to look on purpose. Even point-and-shoot cameras will usually have an aperture priority mode or even a manual mode. If you have questions, post them up here on this thread this month, and there will be plenty of knowledgeable photographers that can help you with answers.
In a few days, I'll post an ENTRY thread. The entry thread is where you'll post your ONE photo entry for the contest. Entry photos must be taken by you during the month of June. The contest will end at midnight on June 30.
In the mean time, post on this thread some prior photos that you've taken that incorporate bokeh so we can see all kinds of examples. Also be sure and ask questions if you have them.
Get shootin'!
The topic is "Bokeh".
What is bokeh? Bokeh is based on a Japanese word that means "blur". In photography, "bokeh" refers to the blurred out background behind a sharply focused main subject. It's a cool effect. It puts all the attention on your main subject by getting rid of the distracting background detail.
To get bokeh, it helps to use your camera's Manual mode or the Aperture Priority (Av) mode and set a large aperture for your shot. It seems backwards, but smaller f/stop numbers correspond with larger aperture openings. So use a small f/stop number setting, like f/4, f/3.5, f/2.8, etc. Then find a subject to photograph that has some distance between it and whatever is behind it in the background. The greater the distance between the background and your subject, the more blurry the background will become.
This picture kinda shows how focus fades into blur. I focused on the yellow flowers. You can see that the bluebonnets that are close to the yellow flowers are just slightly blurrry, but the bluebonnets farthest away are the most blurry.
If you pick a subject that doesn't have anything close to it, then your subject will standout even more in the photo. In this shot, the sunflower is isolated in front of trees that were a 20-30 yards back in the distance. The trees were completely blurred out while the flower was in focus, so the flower really stands out.
Same thing in this shot, as the trees were a good ways back from the hummingbird....
You get the idea, and hopefully there will be lots of other examples posted on this thread to show how bokeh can be used to make a cool picture. So use this as a chance to get your camera out of Auto mode and begin to learn how you can use your camera to make pictures look how you want them to look on purpose. Even point-and-shoot cameras will usually have an aperture priority mode or even a manual mode. If you have questions, post them up here on this thread this month, and there will be plenty of knowledgeable photographers that can help you with answers.
In a few days, I'll post an ENTRY thread. The entry thread is where you'll post your ONE photo entry for the contest. Entry photos must be taken by you during the month of June. The contest will end at midnight on June 30.
In the mean time, post on this thread some prior photos that you've taken that incorporate bokeh so we can see all kinds of examples. Also be sure and ask questions if you have them.
Get shootin'!
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