The Poor Man's Bokeh Kit

I'm sorry for the extremely long hiatus and lack of posts the past few months!  Basically, what I have been facing is a ridiculously busy senior year in college.  Between hard classes, job hunting, and working, I haven't had the free time to mess around on blogs like I did as a freshman.  I sincerely hope that will change after graduation, and that I'll be able to start posting regularly again.

As a quick post, I thought it might be fun to tell you about ways to create shaped bokeh.  I was mesmerized when I first saw the heart, star, tree, and paw shaped dots of light in photos all over Flickr and the web.  I immediately investigated how to take shots like the one below.

Photo from tehchix0r on Flickr

In searching how to do this, I found a "ghetto/college student/cheapskate" solution.  This basically consists of cutting a piece of stock card or construction paper into a circle the size of your lens.  Then, cut a shape--any shape you're artistically capable of making--into the center of the circle. Personally, I used fancy paper hole punches (hearts and stars) to make the shapes that I wanted.  Tape this over your lens, switch it to manual focus, and start shooting.  If you're having trouble visualizing this setup, DIY Photography has a more detailed procedure for this technique here.

I'll admit that I am no expert at this and it was very difficult to get the focus to work correctly.  However, I've only tried it a couple times, so I may be able to figure out ways to improve my skills.  Here are a few shots from my first attempt.

As you can see, I struggled with focus and blur in many situations.  I plan to try this again now that I have a proper tripod (I got it for Christmas a couple days after shooting these photos) to see if it helps with some of my blur issues.  I will post those as soon as I am in a situation with pretty lights to photograph again.

I also did some research into buying the actual bokeh filters.  I found a nifty bokeh kit on Photojojo that is calling to me.  If I weren't trying so hard to save money before graduation, I would probably go for this impulse buy.  It's a reasonable $25 for the lens attachment and a wide variety of shapes.  If arts and crafts frustrate you, this product may be the way to go: http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/bokeh-kit/

Anyway, have fun with this little trick and let me know if you have tips as to how to improve its quality! :)