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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Golden Breasted Bunting and Bokeh

A few weeks ago I read about Bokeh on fellow blogger, Lori's post . It's basically describes the "out-of-focus" areas of a photograph making the main subject stand out. She has beautiful samples of her photography here. I have been trying to perfect this technique without much success. On Sunday Grant and I were birding in the valley, when I spotted a bird on the side of the road. I not so much as spotted it as heard it at first. Grant stopped and I saw the bird sitting on a sandy mound uttering a nasal buzzing sound: "zzhhrrr". I took half a dozen photos before it flew off into the bush. Imagine my delight when I downloaded the photos and found that I'd inadvertantly achieved the Bokeh effect in my photo. (you can read more about Bokeh here, if you wish)
Golden-breasted Bunting
Bokeh shows how the out-of-focus area makes the subject stand out (I'm determined to work harder to achieve this from now on!)

For more bird photos around the world, click here

16 comments:

  1. Hi Jo, I've never heard of Bokeh but I like it. Perhaps I will have a chance to try it out some time. Love your little bird :-)

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  2. Wow---that bunting called my name... Love it... Never seen one like that before.. Just gorgeous!!!!

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. Jo! You did a beautiful job with these photos! Perfect examples of the Bokeh technique.

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  4. Beautiful pictures...lovely birds!

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  5. Beautiful bird and I like that bokeh affect. I get lucky with it occasionally.

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  6. He's a beautiful bird and welcome to the world of bokeh. It is especially good with Christmas lights in the back ground. It has a lot to do with Depth of Field. Use a wide aperture (low number) and have a good distance between the subject and the background and use a telephoto lens.
    Try these sites:http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/?
    s=Bokeh&submit=

    http://www.photoble.com/photography-tips-tricks/how-to-7-quick-tips-to-create-bokeh-with-digital-camera

    http://www.digital-photography-school.com/?s=bokeh&search=Search

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  7. A lovely bird.

    To get your 'bokeh' effect, use a small f stop on your camera.
    e.g. f4 or f5.6
    Focusing is critical, but everything else should be thrown out of focus, and make the subject stand out.

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  8. Yes, I learn something new every day ...

    ... if we ever meet-up in Namibia Jo, I'm going to sit you down in front of my computer and get you to go through my "Unidentified Birds" file ... :)

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  9. Hi Jo, It is always fun to learn something new. You did great. I love the pretty bunting too. Great shots.

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  10. WoW, Jo! What perfectly clear shots of the subject (bird)! I had never heard of Bokeh before but I see you have done it well. Great work.

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  11. What a cute little thing ! (Arthur thinks the same, lol)

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  12. A happy surprise then..I had not heard of that technique but it gives great results as you got....

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  13. A lovely bird to see... Keith (Holdingmoments)is spot on with what to do.

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  14. You are on your way to becoming a bokeh master!

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  15. It works best if you zoom in on the bird and the background is a little further behind it. Ergo, your success here. Beautiful shots.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo