Bokeh light effect

Solid Bokeh 

(Taken from: http://www.texturex.com/Bokeh-Textures

/city+bokeh+texture+light+effect+free+stock+image.jpg.php on 05/02/12)

Slightly blurred Bokeh

(Taken from: http://syafiqahrahmat.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_01_archive.html on 05/02/15)

Very Blurred Bokeh

(Taken from: http://wallpaperswiki.com/bokeh-effect-glare-light/ on 05/02/15)

A bokeh light effect is a blurred image of several small lights - it can be used as a man image or used as a secondary images layered over a main image with an altered opacity. This then makes the main image appear as though there is a kind of light projection on it, just very faint and subtle. This effect can be used over another image/moving image for many reasons, for example, to give it a softer look, to look vintage, to express emotions through use of colour in the lights etc...

These lighting effects can be altered and manipulated in many ways, for example, by decreasing the focus on the lens the image will be more blurred and the lights will become more hazed around the edges as well as much larger (depending on how far away you are from the lights will change this factor - the closer you are the bigger the lights will be, the farther away., the smaller they will be). As seen from the images above, you can create a solid, slightly blurred or very blurred effect depending on how much focus you put on the image. Also, the background of the lights can change the look of the lights - as shown in the top two image,s they have a black background so single lights are much more noticeable. however the third image appears to either have many lights over lights so there is no background between the lights, creating a gold effect, or, there is some gold behind the image such as gold paper, a gold/war coloured warm or even a gold coloured Christmas tree. this adds to the cluttered and full look of the very blurred bokeh light effect.

The very blurred bokeh effect however would be a bad choice to use in low opacity over a main image as the background and lights are the same colour, so in order to maintain the visibility of the image underneath, the bokeh light effect on top would have the be of such low opacity that the actual bokeh effect of the lights themselves would be almost transparent. For this reason, it is because to space the lights out a little and have a visible plain background that is of a different colour to the lights in the image such as black.

I want to use this lighting effect in my video as I was influenced by it with one of my stylistic influences - 'Talain Rayne - Twinkle Lightly'. I thought that this effect would be very beneficial to use in my video in relation to the message and style - the lighting can act both as an emotional piece but also add to a dysfunctional unreal element that synchronises  with the dysfunctional sound of my song choice by Mac DeMarco.

I first attempted this effect in my video with the slightly blurred bokeh effect above to see how a still image bokeh would look over a moving image. It turned out to look rather out of place along with a moving image so I decided it would be best to capture my own moving image bokeh light effect by slightly shaking the camera over the lights and putting the lights slightly in and out of focus so it looks as though they are having a glowing effect. This will allow some movement to the image without taking away from the main image.

so far this effect is working well with the main image - I may however, re-take this shot as the light's were not as defocused as i would have liked them to be. Also, I want to use several different coloured lights instead of white lights as this will add to the chaotic and dysfunctional elements that Mac DeMarco's song will suggest, but it will also symbolise a mixture of emotions the character will be feeling behind the exterior of his male representation.