How-To: Capturing Bokeh Shots with your Mobile Phone

Hello! So many of you have been asking me in person / instagram / through my friends on how I take my bokeh pictures, if I use an app or what not. The answer is - No. I actually just use my iPhone camera! And it's really simple to achieve it, so today I'm gonna share the "secret" with you guys and hopefully you guys will be more clear on how to do it -- and maybe take some of your own some day!

A little background before we start.. bokeh actually means an out-of-focus area(s) of an image. Bokeh often appears in background highlights, but, however, is not limited to that. Such blurs occurs in all out-of-focus areas of an image.

Sounds too complicated? No worries. The key point to remember here is having an out-of-focus or what I like to call blur-on-purpose image. We want to create pictures out of lights that are blur, on purpose.

Okay I feel like I'm talking too much so let's just get down to it!

Here's what you need:
1. A scene - somewhere with lights. (e.g. christmas trees, chandeliers, buildings, highways..)
2. Your iPhone (or any mobile that has auto/manual focus)
3. Yourself.. duh, that's pretty obvious right? hehe

Step 1 -  choose your scene.
 

Step 2 - launch your camera app, and focus on your palms like this:

 tap that little blue square to focus on your palm till it focuses like the image below 

   this is the Camera! app on the iPhone - the iPhone camera app can do the same, but it was really difficult to take a screenshot of my focused palm using it so i borrowed this app for illustration purposes, oops. x  

Step 3 - very quickly, lift your hand(the one holding your phone) up pointing at the scene, and SHOOT!

Note: you've to be sure that you press the "capture" button as soon as you lift your hand up because you wouldn't want your camera to focus back onto the scene! remember? we are aiming for a "blur on purpose" shot.

and voilà! you've got your very own bokeh shot. 

Hope you guys are more sure of how to achieve it now. I wish you guys the best of fun in capturing some of those shots, and do tag me in your shots on Instagram (xwonderlust) if you want to, because I'd love to see them!

Much love. x