Beautiful Bokeh - Part 2

Misty Water Colored Memories

Before talking about the 'technical' ways to create beautiful bokeh, I want to talk about two things that come first..... and they are composition and light.  

When I first became interested in photography, I either read, or someone said to me, "Watch your background; or, make sure there isn't a tree growing out of someone's head."  So I learned to move my camera angle to avoid the head-tree distraction.  But just because I avoided that mistake doesn't necessarily mean I improved my image as much as I could have with a little more thought to where exactly should I position my camera for the best composition.

As I mentioned yesterday, (see previous post for Part 1 of this little tutorial), backgrounds are an important part of an interesting photo.  One that is too sharply focused distracts from your main subject, and one that is too blurred showing no detail at all, is just plain boring.

So, after you find your main subject, you need to look beyond the subject to what you see in the background.  When I first composed the above image, there was a dark green hedge in the background.  Boring!  I moved to another angle, but then the sun was creating huge patches of white, blow out areas that overpowered my subject.

I moved around to numerous positions and looked through my viewfinder from many angles until I found this composition.  The colors from an adjacent flowerbed created this beautiful palette of dreamy colors.  The soft circles upon circles of light, bokeh, added yet another surreal dimension to the mood of the image.  This was just what I was looking to capture.

O.K., you've been patient!  Tomorrow I'll get down to the nitty gritty about how to create beautiful bokeh and how I created these images.