Bokeh, the Japanese word for “blur”, has been one of the most popular effects in photography for years. But what is it, really?
In its simplest form, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image. It’s usually most visible around small highlights, like specular reflections or light sources, and appears as soft, glowing orbs.
Bokeh can be created in-camera by using a wide aperture setting on your lens, or it can be simulated in Photoshop with the help of a few filters. In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to create a simple bokeh brush in Photoshop and use it to add some subtle sparkle to our image.
First, open an image in Photoshop. We’ll be using this beautiful photo of a rose:
Next, create a new layer and name it “bokeh”. Then use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw a small circle anywhere on your image:
Fill this selection with white by going to Edit > Fill > White. Deselect the area by pressing Command/Ctrl+D.
Now we need to apply a Gaussian Blur filter to this layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter a Radius value of 50 pixels:
This will give us a nice, soft blur which we can use as our bokeh brush.
But before we do that, we need to invert the colors on this layer so that the white becomes black. Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert or press Command/Ctrl+I.
Your “bokeh” layer should now look something like this:
Now we can use this layer as a brush! Select the Brush Tool from the Toolbar:
Then, in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, click on the brush thumbnail and choose your “bokeh” brush from the pop-up menu:
Make sure your foreground color is set to black and lower the Opacity of your brush to around 30%. Then simply paint over any areas of your image where you want to add some sparkle. Here’s what our image looks like after adding some bokeh with our brush:
As you can see, bokeh is a great way to add some subtle interest and style to your photos. And with Photoshop’s help, it’s easy to create!
How Do You Make a Bokeh Brush in Photoshop?
In its simplest form, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image.
Bokeh can be created in-camera by using a wide aperture setting on your lens, or it can be simulated in Photoshop with the help of a few filters.
In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to create a simple bokeh brush in Photoshop and use it to add some subtle sparkle to our image.
