Bokeh is the ephemeral essence of blur, something you will discover yet remains completely intangible. Other times, it’s shaped into a mold, controlled and specific. The 306 entries from this week’s Shooting Challenge capture bokeh at both extremes.

Lead Photo – Scent of a Woman

We put Christmas lights on the wall and I had a patient friend as a model pretending to perfume herself for an hour. Nikon D3000, 50mm, f/1.8, ISO 3200, 1/20 sec.
-Anna Albert

Miniature Stetson

I was walking the streets of Hipsterville (aka Los Feliz, L.A.), on the prowl for what my friend calls ‘body-dumpers’-older beat-up American giants with expansive trunks that evoke the transport of bodies, a la Jimmy Hoffa. My friend has a web site, bodydumpers.com, and I’d been intending to contribute. (We’re from Detroit, may explain the preoccupation with beat up American cars, Hoffa, dead bodies in trunks)

I stumbled upon this beautifully battered red Jeep Wagoneer, complete with fake wood paneling. I took a ton of shots before I spotted the good part in regards to the truck-the little cowboy hat hanging from the rearview. Shooting with a 5D mkII body and an EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, shot 70mm, wide open at f/2.8, ISO 400. I knew from the hyperfocal contest that the longer the focal length and the closer I was to the subject, the shallower the depth of field, and the simpler the Bokeh.
- Adam Thurtell

Glitter

Long time fan, first time courageous enough to enter the challenge. I actually wanted to take pictures of a cityscape, or find a ferris wheel somewhere. When that didn’t exercise routine, I almost gave up until I noticed i’ll mimic an identical effect with glitter. I pulled out this old purse of mine and snapped away in numerous angles. Took me forever to select the single I adore essentially the most, but I’m pretty ok with the outcome. Here’s to making it work! Only a few cropping in Picasa. Specs: Canon Rebel XS 18-55mm, ISO 400 F1/5
- Asra Hussain

Aston Martin

I was messing around with pictures of Christmas tree lights to get some ideas and noticed that the lights were primarily red, yellow and green, which made me examine a stop light. I grabbed a diecast model of an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish (from the James Bond movie, Die Another Day) that I actually have and placed it on top of a box that I covered with a grey blanket to simulate aphalt. I draped a black blanket over a chair so the lights would would stand out. The Christmas tree lights were tough to work as they weren’t staying in position just hanging over the blanket, so I used some black electrical tape and taped them to a pen to set them in a row. I used another blanket to cover the alternative lights around the three subject lights. Set the auto about 5 feet from the lights and my tripod about 3 feet behind the auto. Stopped all the way down to 5.6 and interested by the rear of the automobile to get the bokeh effect. Used a handheld light to illuminate the rear of Aston. I took about 50 pictures of the lights as green, yellow, red from top to bottom, then realized they were inverted and had to reset the lights within the correct order. Whoops! 100 or so shots (including the errors) and I liked this one the perfect. Nikon D60, Sigma 105mm Macro, ISO 400, 105 mm, f/5.6, Shutter 0.6s
- John McGrail

Daylight Bokeh

I kept seeking to get an enchanting bokeh shot at night, but the daytime setting turned out far more pleasing. Shot was inquisitive about string lights and a Nikon D90 + 50mm @ f1.8, 1/160, ISO 200.
- Nick Sprankle

Obligatory

The speculation for this photo actually woke me out of a deep sleep. I sat up in bed and said ” EXPLODING DEATH STAR BOKEH!!!” My poor wife opened her eyes and kinda said ” whaza?” before falling immediately back to sleep. I left her in bed and went to work blowing up a Death Star.

The main subject of this photo is a Micro Machines X-wing that I bought new about twenty years ago. It’s not much bigger than a US quarter. Due to the small scale, I didn’t must build a really big Death Star. This is a roughly golf ball sized clump of tin foil peppered with some colored translucent Lego bricks. I just added bricks until the bokeh’d Death Star looked nice and explodey. I setup this scene in my lightbox and then moved it into a sunny window. My regular hot lights weren’t giving me bright enough bokeh by themselves. a couple of shots later, I had this!

Photoshop work includes cloning out a small bamboo skewer I was using to hold up the X-wing. I also did a bit dodge work on the fighter to bring out a number of the greys and a slight crop to make the shot a bit of more dramatic. Shot with my Nikon D300 and 55mm f/2.8 manual macro lens. F/2.8, 1/1250th, ISO 200, daylight white balance. May the bokeh be with you!
- Adam Wolf

Orange Fizz

It is a shot of orange soda with a little bit bokeh fizz. For this shot I acquired a shooting assistant, tripod, my 50mm G-series canon lens, and some Christmas lights. I believed I might try and incorporate the bokeh balls, typically a secondary subject, into the main and came up with this. 50mm, 1.8, 1/30, iso 400.
- Ryan Meyer

The Stuff Scrapbooks Are Made Of

Taken on a sunday morning while fiddling with my children. Nikon D90, 50mm 1.4f Nikkor Lens, Shutter Speed 1/500, ISO 200 (unsure).
-Rehan Riaz

Snowcase

I live within the Washington DC Metro area and tonight we had the largest snowstorm since last year. I’ve been seeking to get some shots using depth of field and snowflakes all winter but I’ve always either been working when the snow is only right or it’s been freezing rain instead. I didn’t happen to have my camera on me but I was at my mother’s, so I picked up her Canon Digital Rebel XSi and her wide angle lens (Only lens she has immediately) and went to town. I couldn’t travel far because I was worried about getting snow throughout her camera, so I stayed under the deck above our garage and took some shots. This was the perfect shot I got and I had to exploit flash to do it, but I’m very pleased with the implications.
-Dan

Jolly Boy

Image of Albert Minott lead singer of the Jolly Boys. Jolly Boys are a famous oldschool Jamaican Mentos Band formed in 1955 and given their name by Errol Flynn.
This shot was taken after a performance on the evening of January 26th at Gee Jam in port Antonio, Jamaica. They do a extremely cool version of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab. Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50mm lens 1/50th @ f/1.4 ISO 1000.
- Jonathan Bloom

Burning Money Away

Two aces taped on a green t-shirt. Background has red xmas lights and gray wires between them almost seem to be a smoke. Money burning away… DIY Bokeh shape filter produced from step-up ring . Removed tape and added some vignetting in Gimp. Nikon D7000 with Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM, 1/3s, f2, ISO 100, 50mm
-Petri Damstén

Coffee Shop

I took this photo with a Minolta X700. It was Ilford HP5 speed 400 film. I develop my film and print my photos and then scan them sometimes. This photo took me awhile to get the contrast right because the negative was pretty thin. That’s my friend Cody’s profile inside the reflection of a window at a coffee shop.
- Sarah Crist

City Lights

a pal of mine once told me about just a little trick for long exposures, that is to de-focus in the course of the exposure. Seemed like just the article I may use to let me bokeh shot stand out just a little. I had some issues with defining the bokeh balls well at the start because the camera kept moving once I changed the point of interest. The fix was to cover the lens while I de-focused the image. I adore how the celebs within the background are in focus – you can still say it’s reverse-bokeh. Shot with a 35mm f/1.4 lens on a Canon T2i at f/1.4, ISO 100, 5 second exposure.
- Shea Chen

Homebody

The air was crisp, breezing its way into my room due to the cracked window. All the lights were off, apart from the glow of out of doors. Sometimes it’s better to disappear while the surface world lights up. Nikon D3100, Lens: 35 mm – F/1.8
- Kellie Segdwick

WINNER – Double Snowflakes

Oh, the weather outside is frightful… or is it? Actually, it’s quite beautiful when there is a slow, gentle snowfall. It is a photo of the snow falling tonight (January 26) in Merrimack, NH. The f-stop listed above is set as accurate as I will be. Once I got home, I sliced up a blank aperture disc into the shape of a snowflake, grabbed my old, but powerful flash (which can actually work with the whole manual lenses, unlike the built-in or my SB400), and commenced shooting off into the snow (but focused very close). The end result is that each actual snowflake within the frame of the image became some extent of light which, because of the near focus and the snowflake shaped aperture disc, appeared as large snowflakes. Nikon D90, ancient off-brand flash (BRIGHT!!!!), Lensbaby Control Freak Settings: ~50mm, ISO100, f/snowflake, focus at ~12″ from lens.
- Ryan Powers

Incredible entries this week. The collective talents of Shooting Challenge participants is staggering. See your entire wonderful photos within the galleries below. Find full-size (and savable wallpapers) on flickr .

For the last six months, I’ve been working on a really exciting project called Philanthroper , that’s now live, accepting $1 donations for a new nonprofit day-after-day. Check in to aid us build something which could change everything.

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Gallery 3

Gallery 4

Gallery 5

Source

This post is tagged: american giants, christmas lights, exercise routine, scent of a woman, walking the streets