BOKEH AND BLUR (CONT....) One more affordable option worth considering is a Lensbaby lens, like one of the Velvet or Sweet lenses. Not only do they have wide apertures, but they also allow for special effects and can be a lot of fun to play with. You need to manually focus them though. They really are a lot of fun and you can even get them for your iPhone.
Dahlia with added texture, shot with a Lensbaby Sweet 80. Because it’s a completely manual lens, I don’t have a record of the aperture used, but it was probably f/1.8. (Sony a7riii, 80mm)
And finally, a fun thing to try is making patterned bokeh. You can buy Lensbaby templates to do this, or you can go oldschool and cut up some cardboard to fit over the end of your lens. Simply cut a pattern like a heart or a star, ensure the edges are taped so no light sneaks around the edges, and set up a scene with your subject close to the camera and the background far away. Set the aperture to wide if you can. The key is to have something sparkly in the back ground like the Christmas tree lights in the photo above. You’ll need to experiment a bit and you might have to manually focus, but if you succeed, your Christmas cards will be sorted this year!
By using a cardboard template over my lens with a star shape cut into it, I made this star-spangled effect from the Christmas tree lights. (Sony a7riii, 50mm, f/1.4)
Reprinted from https://www.artbyjlm.com/blog/bokeh-and-blur
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