Bokeh Background Using Water | Take and Make Great Photography with Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey is a freelance photographer, writer and trainer of all things photographic. His work is regularly featured in photography magazines, websites and videos.
Gavin has a real passion for sharing his photography and Photoshop knowledge. In 2008 he started recording and uploading video tutorials to YouTube. These quickly gained a large following and to date his videos have been viewed over 20 million times.
In 2010 Gavin was the winner of Adobe’s “Next Photoshop Evangelist” competition and since then he has given training demonstrations in Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements in the UK, Europe and the US.
In 2012 Gavin joined forces with Adorama as a presenter on Adorama TV, where he inspires and teaches photographers from around the world in the art of photography and post processing.

Every great portrait needs the perfect background, so if you’re looking for a background with lots of sparkle and a beautiful bokeh effect, this lighting tutorial is for you.

To create this amazing effect photographer Gavin Hoey heads out into his garden with a couple of flashes, an old pop-up background, and a hosepipe.

Gavin starts with a simple explanation of how he makes a small background appear much, much bigger by using subject compression and a long, telephoto lens. He then takes you through his thoughts on how to control the exposure both with and without flash to achieve his desire for a dark background.

Once everything is in place, it’s time to turn on the tap, spray some water in the air and add a suitable prop to complete the look.

Want to check out some other tips and tricks for using backgrounds during a photo shoot? Take a look at these guides on 42 West:

PRODUCTS USED: