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Making "Bad Bokeh" with the PM2 and 40-150mm Lens

Started Dec 14, 2013 | Discussions thread
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Jim Salvas
Jim Salvas Veteran Member • Posts: 5,671
Making "Bad Bokeh" with the PM2 and 40-150mm Lens
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This is about purposely creating "bad bokeh" with a simple DIY filter.

I originally started using this technique on film SLRs and have posted about using it with a Nikon D300 in the General Photo Techniques forum (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3591912). I thought it would be interesting to try the same thing with my Olympus E-PM2 and the 40-150mm lens.

Here's the DIY filter:

DIY Bad Bokeh Filter

Here's what the subject looks like WITHOUT the filter:

Without Filter

And below is what it looks like WITH the filter. The idea is that the holes fracture the out-of-focus parts of the image, while leaving the in-focus parts pretty much alone.

A long lens which gives a creamy out of focus image works best. You almost always have to shoot with the aperture wide open. I think the 40-150mm lens worked more than OK, with the lens racked all the way out to 150mm and the aperture at 5.6.

There are no set rules for making the filter, other than to use lots of holes, as each will act as a separate aperture to create the out of focus "bad bokeh."

There are more examples in the other forum, but I think there are many possibilities to explore with different combinations of lens, hole patterns and subjects.

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Jim Salvas

 Jim Salvas's gear list:Jim Salvas's gear list
Olympus PEN E-PM2 Olympus E-M1 Olympus PEN-F Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4-5.6 R +11 more
Nikon D300 Olympus PEN E-PM2
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