Happy New Year | Bokeh Tutorial

Happy 2012!

How to get a Sparkling Cupcake with  Bokeh .
{ See tutorial Below }

ISO 5000     f/2.8    1/800 sec shutter speed

How to Get Beautiful Sparkles and Bokeh

TIPS:

1. Choose a Lens with the Largest Aperture
You are going to want to shoot wide open. Use f/1.4, f/.18 or even f/2.8.

2. The larger your aperture the larger the orbs will be. So if you set your aperture to f/1.4 your orbs will be larger
than if you were to set your aperture at f/2.8.

3. If you want larger orbs place your subject farther away from the lights. If you want smaller orbs place your subject
closer to the lights.

4. Keep your Shutter Speed around 1/30 of a sec.

The photo shown above may not be perfect but it is what I was trying to achieve. Here is how I captured it.

1. I hung white Christmas lights from the curtain rod in my dining room.

2. I placed my cupcake on the dining table a good distance away from the lights.

3. I should have used a tri-pod but I just held my camera as still as possible so I did not create any blur.

4. I waited until it was dark out and I turned off the lights.

5. I set my camera in manual mode. I set my ISO at 5000 ( go as high as possible) and my aperture at f/2.8.

6. I had my husband light the sparklers on my cupcake. 🙂

7. I got as close to the cupcake as I could and I focused on it.

Have fun and play around with different settings for different effects!