Capture Bokeh with Your Point-and-Shoot Camera

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Digital Photos

July 24, 2009

What is bokeh? It's a Japanese word for blurring and refers to a pleasing aesthetic quality to the out-of-focus areas of a photo. To find bokeh, look closely at the out-of-focus area of the photo, usually the background.

Identifying good bokeh can be very subjective, but colorful, blurred backgrounds seem to be the main component of a pleasing bokeh. Many photos with bokeh contain spherical highlights caused by the camera lens like the photo of the parrot below. The butterfly photo shows bokeh, too, with a smooth background.

Bokeh with a Canon SX10 IS Camera, Point-and-Shoot
Bokeh with spherical highlights Smooth bokeh

How to Capture Bokeh

To capture bokeh with your point-and-shoot camera, you need to focus on the subject and blur the background. Photos with a subject in sharp focus and a blurred background have a narrow depth of field.

Cameras with large optical zoom range

The following instructions are for cameras with a large optical zoom range:

  1. Set the camera to Portrait mode or Av (Aperture priority) mode. If you select Av mode, set the aperture to the smallest number, usually f/2.8. This is the widest aperture for the camera.
  2. For pleasing colors and shapes, place the subject between you and the sun. Sunlight at an angle behind the subject works very well.
  3. For a nice blur to the background, make sure that there is plenty of space between the subject and its background. Objects close to the subject will remain in focus; objects at a distance will be out of focus.
  4. Step back from the subject and zoom in on the subject from a distance at the longest zoom setting.
  5. Move around and try different angles for different effects of sunlight on the background.
  6. Focus on the subject, compose the photo and take the shot.

The photo below was taken using a Canon SX10 IS camera with a 20x optical zoom.

Canon SX10 IS bokeh

Cameras with small optical zoom range

Macro settings work best for capturing bokeh when your camera does not have a wide zoom range. The following instructions are for cameras with a small optical zoom range:

  1. Set the camera to Portrait mode or Av (Aperture priority) mode. If you select Av mode, set the aperture to the smallest number, usually f/2.8. This is the widest aperture for the camera.
  2. Turn on the Macro setting.
  3. For pleasing colors and shapes, place the subject between you and the sun. Sunlight at an angle behind the subject works very well.
  4. For a nice blur to the background, make sure that there is plenty of space between the subject and its background. Objects close to the subject will remain in focus; objects at a distance will be out of focus.
  5. Step close to the subject. Read your camera's manual to find out how close you must be when using the Macro setting.
  6. Move around and try different angles for different effects of sunlight on the background.
  7. Focus on the subject, compose the photo and take the shot.

The photo below was taken using a Canon S40 camera with a 3x optical zoom, on Macro setting, Av mode (f/2.8).

Canon S40 bokeh

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Updated on November 9, 2009