Bokeh usually shows up as soft circles, but it can also carry a clear, intentional shape that changes the whole mood of a frame. That control lets you build a fun background that supports the subject instead of just sitting there.
Coming to you from Tony with Camera Club Live, this practical video shows how he builds a shaped-bokeh still life from the ground up, starting with a simple candle and a controlled studio setup. He places the subject, locks in camera position on a tripod, and shoots tethered in Capture One so every change is obvious the moment it happens. The key detail is that the lens is wide open, which keeps the blur smooth and makes the background points of light more willing to take on a defined outline. You also see a clean, repeatable way to check exposure with the room lights on versus off, which is a small habit that prevents a lot of wasted frames. The early part is restrained on purpose, because the “wow” effect only happens once the background has something bright to blur.
Once the background enters the scene, Tony uses LED fairy lights as tiny points that can turn into bokeh “stamps.” He spaces them at different distances, which changes both size and layering, and you can see how quickly a plain background becomes a designed one. Then he demonstrates what your aperture blades are already doing behind your back by stopping down and letting the bokeh reveal the internal shape of the lens. That comparison matters if you’ve ever wondered why bokeh sometimes looks round, sometimes looks like a polygon, and sometimes looks a little nervous. He keeps the setup simple enough that you can copy it without special rigs, but the decisions are deliberate, especially around distance and how much clutter to allow behind the subject. You’ll probably rethink how casually you place background lights after watching that section.
The neatest trick is the “external aperture” trick, where Tony puts a cutout shape in front of the lens instead of relying on the lens diaphragm. He uses gobos, the kind normally used in projection or stage lighting, and mounts one so it sits directly over the front of the glass. With the lens opened back up, each out-of-focus light point repeats the cutout, instantly turning random sparkle into a repeatable pattern you can compose like any other element. He flips to live view and physically shifts the lights until the shapes land where he wants them, which is the part most people skip when they try this and get a messy result. He also makes a few finishing adjustments in Capture One, including dehaze, shadow lift, and a 16:9 crop for video framing. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Tony.
