PP03 – Create Bokeh Background – Minnesota Valley Photography Club

Photographer's Playground

DEC 21, 2023 - create bokeh background

The third in the Photographer’s Playground series took the MVPC members to well-decorated neighborhoods in Rosemount, Minnesota to hone their skills creating bokeh, or pleasing background blur.

“The objective is to learn how the choice of lenses impact your image background. Participants learned how compression, depth of field and camera steadiness are affected by lens choice.”

It is said that the background can make or break a photo. One way to manage the background is to create a pleasing blur. We can also get really creative when there are lights, reflective surfaces, or repetitive objects in the background. During this session, we will take advantage of the holiday light displays. Holiday lights turn to multi-color dots which can greatly enhance a photo. We will look for either a city display, or a well decorated neighborhood to photograph. We will also experiment with using bokeh to essential make distracting background elements less distracting. – Don Tredennick

Photographer’s Playground mini-workshops are free events. See what is coming up in the Photographer’s Playground and join us in one of these events to learn more about us, Don and our club.

You should have been there! Fun photographing yuletide lights in Rosemount

All was bright last Thursday (the winter solstice) when a group of MVPC photographers strolled the streets of Rosemount photographing Christmas lights. Professional photographer and Club member Don Tredinnick led the outing, the third in a series of Photographer’s Playground mini-workshops that bring Club members together to experiment with different photographic genres and techniques. Yards – notably the front lawn of Club members Richard and Pat Roberts, who shared some holiday treats – were ablaze with Santas, reindeer, penguins, snowmen and garlands of colorful lights: A perfect setting to practice our bokeh skills with the aid of one of those cool crystal spheres that create mesmerizing wide-angle effects. Many thanks to Don for sharing his expertise and glass ball, and to Rich and Pat for their warm hospitality – Phil Davies