Bokeh

This is a simple technique, and produces pleasing results that you can quickly apply to your photography. The best bokeh is produced when photographing towards a light source, perhaps lots of neon lights. Points of light can also work very well, and produce a "bokeh ball" when the point of light is out of focus.

• To produce bokeh with a main subject, first focus on the main subject.
• You'll want to choose a location where there is some distance between the background lights and the main subject.
• Now use a large aperture to produce a shallow depth of field, apertures larger than f4 are usually sufficient.
• You can also produce bokeh with a long focal length, this can even work in combination with a large aperture.

Shaped Bokeh

To have even more creativity why not try making shaped bokeh? To do this you'll need to cover the lens with a black disc, one that won't let light through. In the middle of the disc cut the shape you wish your bokeh light to be. You could choose hearts, bolts or diamonds. This gives your photography more creativity.

Bokeh with a lensbaby

A great lens to experiment with bokeh with is the lensbaby. It has a barrel, and you can use this to select where the focus area in your image will be. The area around this will become out of focus, and produce stretched bokeh that leads your eye to the main subject in your photo.