Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.
Remember the big tree from Monday? Here it is out of focus. 
Yesterday I talked about the aperture being the variable that allowed for the most creativity? Here’s what I was talking about. The little branch is close and in focus. The lights in the background are out of focus and what the sensor is capturing is the “circle of confusion.” The shape created by this is called bokeh.
In short: big focal length (250mm), big aperture (f4.5), big difference in range to subject (5ft & 50ft).
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What lens was that? The bokeh is nice and round. Because of the way most lenses are made the aperture isn’t perfectly (or even close to) round. This is a fine example of bokeh.
Ravsitar -
That’s the 70-300mm VR 4-5.6 wide open. I wanted to try maxing out the bokeh and the long focal length was just the ticket.
- Mitchster
Colourful and unusual. It’s been too long since I’ve visited your blog, and I’ve missed it.
I enjoyed your long write up on night photography. I’ve finally started getting out at night and experimenting with my camera settings. I wasn’t aware of the humidity in the air causing brighter photos, but I know exactly what you’re talking about as I’ve seen the results and didn’t understand why at the time.
I did laugh about taking night shots during the cold winter months. I was on the high bridge, 10 degrees, the wind blowing across the bridge down the Mississippi River….I lasted about 5 minutes and didn’t get any decent shots to post. I could tolerate it on the bluffs and out of the wind.
I LOVE THIS PICTURE! Very well done! Great color, love the detail of the branch silohetted in the lights. Great!
(PS) Bokeh is this weeks http://shutterday.com/ topic.. you should enter this if you have not already