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I’d been dreaming of bokeh-ful photos for awhile before I finally created these past few images. What’s bokeh? It’s simply those out of focus orbs you see in the background of these past few photos. It’s the only photography jargon I will bother you with; I promise-I’m just so in love with it I had to tell you more about it!
Those dreamy spots can only come from hot spots in the background. I could have just put a pile of Christmas lights on my set, but the yellowy (and god forbid – multi-colored!) lights were not right for the mood I was going for.
Instead, I found these styrofoam balls covered in sequins. When I bounced my light off of them they became pastel colored lights that shone just perfectly. I filled a pie dish with them, and covered it in plastic wrap to hold them in place as I leaned the plate up against a black background. I used blue gels (they are see-through plastic sheets tinted blue). over my two flashes pointed at the background to get the color right. Wa-la! Bokeh to die for.
P.S. – I also have a wide version of this photo available in my shop
On the set of latest series filled with blue bokeh
I was looking at the studio setup photo before reading, and I went, “Hey, are those marbles shrink-wrapped into a frisbee?” I actually wasn’t far off! I”m sure styrofoam was easier to work with, as marbles would have been too heavy and tried to spill out everywhere, but if you ever need some kind of multi-colored and random-ish background for a photo, marbles can take care of that. You can buy a bulk bag of 1″ marbles for something like 40 bucks, but you can’t choose the specific colors you want. Random is random with that offer. Something to keep in mind, though.
An awesome idea Tom, and I will definitely keep it in my back pocket as I am always looking for new background ideas for my photos. Thanks so much for reading!