January 9 - Bokeh Effect

January 9 - Bokeh Effect

Hi all!! Welcome to the 9th day of MOC9!! I hope you all are having a blast so far, I know I am!! Today we are going to play around with a fun little technique for adding something extra to our photos!

We are going to add a bokeh overlay!



There are lots of different ways to create this look, some more complicated than others. Today, I’m going to show you one really simple way to do it in just a few steps!

For this challenge, you can take your own/make your own bokeh image or use one of the many that are out there for download. I just googled "free bokeh image".
There are even some in the store here:
https://the-lilypad.com/store/Twilight-Bokeh-Overlays.html
https://the-lilypad.com/store/Christmas-Lights-paper-pack.html
We are not going to focus on taking an actual bokeh photo, only how to use one to enhance another photo. You will use an overlay, not just a photo with bokeh captured in camera.

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Now for the fun stuff, and it’s really pretty simple! You can use any photo and bokeh image you want. The colors of the bokeh don’t really matter, you can adjust those later. The steps may be a little different in your program, but as long as you achieve the bokeh overlay look, it’s all good! I am using PSCC:

1. Open the photo you want to use in your program. New or old, doesn’t matter

2. Open the bokeh image/overlay you plan to use and place it on top of your photo. You can resize it now if you want, or you can do that later.
3. Set the blending mode to screen. And there’s your bokeh overlay!!
4. You can move it around and resize it to get it right where you want it to be on the photo.



You can totally leave it right here if you are happy with the look and scrap your page, but if you want to take it a little further:

Play around with layer adjustments like hue/saturation.


Add a layer mask to blend the edges and bring back some clarity to the photo (Make sure your foreground color is set to black and you are on the mask layer)


You can even add more than one bokeh image and repeat the steps.


For this one, I played with opacity and levels a little bit


Again adjusting hue/saturation and a mask to hide lines and adjust clarity


And my final result


And now that you have your photo just the way you want it, scrap it!! This part is totally up to you, but you must have scrap product on your page, not just a photo


Here is my page:




To recap the requirements for this challenge:

1. Create a page with a bokeh overlay on at least one photo. You must use an overlay, not just a photo with bokeh captured in camera.
2. Your page can have more than one photo, but one must have the bokeh overlay. You can be creative with it, but I need to be able to tell the bokeh is there.
3. Scrap your heart out Your page must include scrap product, not just the photo.
4. Have fun!! I played around with lots of different bokeh photos until I found the ones that I liked best on my photo.

And now for the general MOC requirements:
Your page must be a new page in order to count for the Month of Challenges. Your page must be posted in three places:

1. Uploaded to the TLP Gallery (not an outside hosting site).
2. Posted in your page thread you created in the MOC Layouts Folder. You should have one post per completed challenge page. If you complete all 31 challenges, your thread should contain 31 posts. Please do not comment in the participants’ page threads so we can keep them clean.
3. Posted in this thread. People can comment here if they wish.

Your page must contain Lilypad product (pages with photos and font only do not count). If you use product from other stores, your pages must contain at least 75% current Lilypad product (currently for sale in the store from either permanent designers or guest designers).

I cannot wait to see all your fabulous creativity!!

 

This space saved for questions
Do the bokeh have to be round?
No, they can be any shape you'd like


And a couple of samples that I didn't get to post in the original thread

One from @MiekSter


And one from @cfile

 

Whoops! Give me a sec Sorry about that!

 

I'm glad! It's a fun one to play around with!

 

I'm heading to bed, but I'll be back bright and early!!
See y'all in the morning!