The Bokeh Effect and a Free Bokeh Overlay - ShopJeanPhotography.com

The Bokeh Effect and a Free Bokeh Overlay

bokeh blur effect

What is Bokeh?

Bokeh is the blurred background (sometimes foreground) effect you see in photos.

bokeh

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  

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19 comments

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!!!

Amy

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!

Adrianne Scalera

I really appreciate you sharing this valuable information with us!

Sonia Hoffpauir

Thank you so much .

Linda Bradley

That is great, thank you for share and I can’t wait for use it!

Monica Paz Cruz

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