Before:
After:
I haven’t tried this, so I hope I’m not being hoodwinked. This article on DIYPhotography shows how to cut out a sort of lens gobo to shape high contrast parts of an out-of-focus photograph.
Bonus points for the first person to build a “MAKE:” bokeh one letter at a time and post the results on the MAKE Flickr pool!
Speaking of which, this example came from the MAKE Flickr pool:
via Digg
A long time ago I tried this, and while I could never get it to work well with my lens (massive vignetting) you could definitely see the effect – it’s pretty nifty.
The effect will depend on a number of factors, such as lens focal length, max f-stop, taking f-stop and distance from lens to mask. So, results will vary, but worth experimenting with!
If you use Cokin filters, then you can just make one out of a piece of thin card – I’ve had some great results with a 50mm prime.
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