How to create a Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

In this tutorial, with a few quick simple steps, you will learn how to create a digital bokeh effect in Photoshop that can be used in a variety of projects.

So what exactly is Bokeh?

Bokeh derives from the Japanese word ‘boke’ meaning blur. Bokeh pronounced boh-keh, is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. See the example of bokeh in the; background, of the photograph below.

New Document

Start by creating a new document in Photoshop (File > New) or Shortcut: Command/Ctrl (Mac/PC) and N. For this tutorial we will be creating a document 2560 pixels x 1440 pixels as this is the size of an iMac 27 Inch Display. Feel free to use the same size as this will pretty much cover all basis however feel free to create a custom size that suits you best. The size of the document determines what size your final image will be when exporting.

Create Bokeh Brush

We will be creating the digital bokeh effect by creating a brush that will do all the work for us. But first, we must create the design of the brush.

Create a new layer and then hide the original background layer.

Click on the ‘eye icon’ just to the left of the Layer name and preview to hide the layer. Having the eye icon visible means the layer, shape, group, etc is visible. Having the icon off means that the element is also not visible.

Ellipse Tool

Use the shortcut ‘U‘ to get the ellipse tool selected. You may need to right-click on the ‘Rectangle Tool’ to get the ellipse tool to show up.

To change the foreground color value, click once on the foreground color box to get the Color Picker to pop up.

Set the foreground color to an RGB value of; 38, 38, 38.

Hold Shift down while clicking and dragging to create a perfect circle. Holding shift down locks the aspect ratio to be equal (meaning both the height and width of the shape are equal, resulting in a perfect circle when used with the ellipse tool).

You will notice your shape will have a blue outline before letting go of your mouse click, indicating the size of the circle you are about to create. Create a medium-sized circle.

Let go of the mouseclick, you will have your perfect circle filled with the foreground color that was chosen.

Fill & Stroke

The first step is to reduce the fill of the ellipse shape. Lower the fill to 50%.

Next, create a stroke along the inside of the circle. You can do this by clicking on the fx icon at the bottom right corner of the Photoshop workspace. Once the fx drop-down appears select stroke.

Increase the size to a 10-pixel stroke, set the position to; inside. Finally, make sure the color of the stroke is set to black.

Define Brush Presets

Now that we have created the design elements of the digital bokeh, it’s time to turn it into a brush. Make sure the ellipse layer is selected. (Just click once on the name of the layer “Ellipse 1”. An active selected layer is showcased by being highlighted.

Once the ellipse layer is selected, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.

Name your brush something descriptive so you can easily find it in the future and press ‘OK‘ to create the brush.

The next step is to edit the brush’s settings so that it gives the desired effect. Open the Brushes Panel by going to Window > Brushes, so that the brushes panel opens.

Now that the Brush panel is open, make sure your Bokeh brush is selected, then click on the ‘Brush Settings Panel‘ button shown below.

Select Brush Tip Shape tab at the top of the list of the tabs. Set the spacing to 200%.

Open the Shape Dynamics tab. Set the Size Jitter to 100%. Set the Minimum Diameter to 50%. Make sure Angle Jitter and Roundness Jitter to 0%.

Next, select the Scattering tab and set the Scatter to 1000%. Set Count to 5. Make sure Count Jitter is set to 0%.

Finally, select the Transfer tab. Set Opacity Jitter and Flow Jitter to 50%.

Create a Gradient Background

It’s time to create the colored background that the Bokeh use as a background. Hide the Ellipse layer and unhide the Background layer.

Add a Gradient Adjustment Layer by clicking the half black half white circle, bottom right corner of your Photoshop workspace and selecting Gradient.

You have two options when it comes to gradients; presets or custom gradients.

Custom gradients let you have complete control of the colors in the gradient, click on the center of the gradient preview to edit the gradient.

Depending on how many colors you want in your gradient will determine how many color stops you will want.

To add a color stop to the gradient, just hover your mouse over the gradient where you want to add the stop and just click once.

A range of 2-4 colors is normal but the sky is the limit. Add however many stops your gradient loving heart desires.

To change the color of the stops in the gradient, just click on the color stop, click on the color dropdown menu and select the color you wish to use.

That is how you would create a custom gradient, where you have total control.

However, for this tutorial, we will actually be using a Gradient Preset. Presets have plenty of great gradient options as well as saving time in your project. To select a Gradient Preset click on the drop-down arrow shown below.

The presets will open below, they are organized based on the main color. For this tutorial, we will use the Gradient Preset: Purple_22.

Once you have a chosen gradient, change the angle of the gradient to 45 degrees.

Add the Bokeh

It’s finally time to add the Bokeh to our scene. Create a new layer. Select the Paintbrush by using the shortcut ‘B’. Change the foreground color to white. You can do this very quickly by using the shortcut ‘D’ which resets the foreground/background colors to black and white. Then use the shortcut ‘X’ which switches the two colors around till white is your foreground color.

Select the Bokeh brush, set the size of the brush to about 400px.

Click and hold to start painting the canvas with the brush. Once the canvas has been filled with a good amount of Bokeh.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

Set a Gaussian Blur of 20 pixels.

Create a new layer, change the size of the brush to around 300px. Repeat the previous step but this time adding a Gaussian blur of 10 pixels instead of 20.

Create a new layer, change the size of the brush to around 250px. Repeat the previous step but this time adding a Gaussian blur of 4 pixels instead of 10.

Finally, add one last layer and change the size of the brush to around 200px. Repeat the previous step but this time adding a Gaussian blur of 0.5 pixels instead of 4.

Congratulations You’ve got Bokeh

You now know how to create a digital Bokeh in Photoshop, great job!