In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a digital bokeh effect with Photoshop. According to Wikipedia, bokeh is the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. This effect helps the eye to focus on an object while also making the background visually appealing.
Final Result:
A) Creating a Bokeh Brush
Step 1:
In order to create the bokeh effect, we’ll first need to create a bokeh brush. Create a new document 500 X 500 pixels in size and with a transparent background. Then create a perfect circle by selecting the Elliptical Marquee Tool and holding down the Shift key. Fill it with any color.
Step 2:
Go to Edit – Stroke and set the Inside stroke to black 8 px. It will look like this.
Lower the Opacity to 50% to get a more transparent look instead of a solid bokeh brush.
Step 3:
Now that we’ve created the brush, go to Edit>Define Brush Preset, name your brush “BOKEH” and save it. You can now see the newly created brush in your Brush Panel (Windows – Brushes).
B) Setting the Brush
Step 1:
Change the brush settings to as shown below:
C) Creating Bokeh Effects
Step 1:
Before we start painting our bokeh, let’s create a new layer ( 900×900 ) and fill it with a colorful gradient. I created a new layer and used the layer styles (Layer >Layer Style>Blending Options) to do this, but feel free to do it any way you prefer. Here’s how my document looks like so far.
Step 2:
Create a new layer and name it Bokeh 1. Select the Brush Tool (B) and set its color as white. Now simply paint some circles with your custom brush. Use a big brush size for this first layer. Then change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.
After that, go to Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur. Set to 18 pixels.
Create another layer and repeat the previous step. However, use a much smaller brush this time.
Repeat the same steps for the different layers of bokeh effects until you get the results that you like.
Step 3:
Lastly, adjust the colors to enhance the bokeh effects.
Play around with the Brush Size, Brush Color, Blend Modes and Blur Radius to get your ideal results.
Here are a few other bokeh samples I tried out.
Image ID: 501849 © Lev Dolgatshjov 123RF.com
Image ID: 5826697 © Alexander Yakovlev 123RF.com