Creative Flash Photography

Workshop 11

Nighttime Bokeh

▸ How to capture wonderful background bokeh in urban settings

▸ Setting up your lights

Bokeh (those lovely out-of-focus areas in an image) is addictive, and lenses that produce beautiful bokeh are usually expensive! Bokeh can be captured in daylight (see the “Depth of Field and Bokeh” tutorial on page 98), but it really comes into its own at night when the circles of confusion produced by the lens form beautiful bokeh bubbles. I love shooting in the evening and at night when the light is at its most tantalizing. The downside of this time of day is it increases the risk of camera shake and image noise, and focusing at wide apertures is tricky. This workshop explains some ways to capture great nighttime shots. The ...