It's the time of year when you might be stringing holiday lights all around your house. Put them to use with this fun DIY project that only takes a few minutes to complete.
Coming to you from David Bergman of Adorama TV, this quick video demonstrates how you can create custom bokeh shapes using a filter you place in front of your lens. Although the video mentions a kit, you can easily do this at home. Just grab some black construction paper, gaffer's tape, and an X-ACTO knife (be careful not to cut yourself). Cut out circles of construction tape a bit larger than the front element of your lens, then carefully carve the shape or design you want in the center (make it fairly small). After you've done this, simply tape the cutout to the front of your lens, open to a wide aperture (an f/1.8 or faster lens generally works best for this), and find some point sources of light to include in your photos, or grab your holiday lights and set up a scene of your own. It's a fun and easy technique that doesn't take much time to implement, so try it out yourself!
