The Bokeh Effect and a Free Bokeh Overlay
What is Bokeh?
Bokeh is the blurred background (sometimes foreground) effect you see in photos.
The Blur Effect
Bokeh focuses the attention on a particular area of an image as it blurs out all but the point of focus. There are varying types of bokeh "blur" and different lenses give different bokeh effects as well.
How To Achieve Bokeh
To achieve natural bokeh in your background, it is best to shoot at a wider aperature such as an F-Stop at 3.2 or lower. It will also depend on how far your subject is from the background as well. A lens with the ability to shoot at a wide aperature is ideal for good bokeh. Some good examples would be the 50mm 1.4 or 1.8, the 85mm 1.4 or 1.8 and for smoother, creamier bokeh, the 105mm 1.4, the 135mm, and the 200mm are fantastic.
Manually Creating Bokeh (blurred background in your photos)
You can also create bokeh in photoshop and add effects to your images in post processing. In the video below, not only will I be sharing how to use your free bokeh overlay, I will be showing you how to create bokeh in photoshop as well.
The Overlay can be used in Elements, Creative Cloud, CS versions of Photoshop. Creating the bokeh can only be done in CS5-CS6 and Creative Cloud
Enjoy this bokeh effect on your images to give it a bit of flare. Just drag and drop the bokeh overlay onto your image, set it to Screen Blend Mode, and erase the unwanted bokeh. Available for a limited time only. Please leave a comment below and let us know what you think about this tutorial and download, and let us know what you'd like to see more of!
Free Photoshop Downloads
(Free Bokeh Overlay Download ) DOWNLOAD HERE
19 Responses
Shelly
Love it…… have not seen or even heard of that before…. Thank you! I am going to try it out now.
Stacey
Thank you so much, cant wait to try this on my pictures.
Heather
I’m new to your site and am loving all of your tutorials! You have a real gift to break each step down into manageable tasks to help us learn! thank you! I can’t wait to download this bokeh overlay this weekend and try it out!
Heather
Loved the bokeh tutorial and the downloads. Very easy and simple, yet gorgeous end result. Thank you!
Amy
Thank you for the tutorial, I really appreciate you keeping in short and simple as I am very much a beginner! Going to try out the free bokeh overlay now!!!
Adrianne Scalera
Thank you so much! I just love your tutorials, you have a gift 😊
Currently making my way through the creative workshop. Learning so much, just love it!
Sonia Hoffpauir
I really appreciate you sharing this valuable information with us!
Linda Bradley
Thank you so much .
Monica Paz Cruz
That is great, thank you for share and I can’t wait for use it!
Adriana Borovinsky
Eres una genia, ,uchas gracias por compartir todo
Sylvia
Thanks for the tutorials they did help.
Sylvia
Thanks for the tutorials they did help.
Carolina
You are so generous, thank you very much .. I love the bokeh Effect I will practice and practice until I get it right..
Georgia Hozey
Fantastic that you offer a “bite” every now and then!! This is so cool!! Cant wait to utilize it!!
Kyra
Very cool! I’ve never used field blur before. I’m excited to try it out to make bokeh overlays!
lindsey
Jackie, these are son fun. And thanks for the tutorial!! You are a dear!
Kristin
Thank you so much for this! I can’t wait to use it!
Archana
Thank you for the free bokeh overlay.
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Jodi
October 21, 2018
Very cool concept! I’ve never used field blur! My question is: after you have selected your random photo and created your “field blur” bokeh…… what do you do with it? Do you save it somewhere to use at a later time or do you apply it to your random photo you selected and how? I understand the making of it, I’m just unclear on what or where you use it, save it?