Beautiful Bokeh With The iPhone
What is bokeh? Bokeh is the soft blur of a background. It is commonly used to make background lights look like soft blurred circles with the light reflections. It can be used to give images a little bit of a magical look, especially with Christmas images and is great fun to do. Who doesn't like a bit of sparkly magic on their festive Christmas photos? As usual, the effect is a lot better on a proper camera, but it is totally achievable with an iPhone. I do not take so many indoor photos, so I have also got some outdoor examples of bokeh. Using the natural light outdoors you can get some very pretty images.
The last two images were discussed in the previous blog post when I introduced the subject of blurring the background of images. So how do we achieve this lovely and fun bokeh effect with the iPhone? Read on!
Bokeh Effect With iPhone Portrait Mode
Go into your camera app and choose the portrait mode
Your phone will prompt you if you are not in the correct position with "move further away" on the screen.
There is also a choice of lighting options to select from: natural, studio, contour, stage etc. This allows you to select the lighting that would work best for your image.
Take photo.
Open photo and tap edit.
Tap the "f" value in top left corner.
A scale slider will appear, which allows you to alter the level of blur (bokeh) that the background of your image has.
Take a photo of something in front of some lights and have a play with the slider.
Here are some more images I have taken trying to capture the bokeh effect. I have had a play with the flames from the fire as well to show you another example of playing with the bokeh effect with a different light source:
Now it is your turn....go and snap some photos starting with those Christmas lights and let me know how you get on :-)
The image I have chosen for this weeks focus is this one:
I find fog pretty but hard to capture as the closer you get, the further away it moves! However, this sunbeam at just the right time highlighted the fog more, as well as giving the image a little more depth and substance.
The image I have chosen to put the spotlight on from my shop is this one.
This image was taken on a winter expedition through Sarek National Park in the arctic of Northern Sweden. I was skiing there for a week, pulling everything I needed in a pulk behind me and camping in a tent. It was raw, rugged, wild, cold, and stunning. I think this image captures all of that about this beautiful location in the world. I particularly like the colours produced by the cold clear dusk, with the moon shining like a beacon above the mountain.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post and learning a little more about some of the great things your phone camera can do, and thank you for taking the time to read it. I would love to hear from you in the comments, via email, or the contact form. If there are any topics you would like covered in the future, please leave suggestions in the comments. Please take a visit to my instagram page where there is a lot more to see. You can always request an order from there if you see an image you like that is not on my shop page. Lastly, it would be a huge favour if you could share this blog post for me. It would help my shop a lot!
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