Awesome digital bokeh effect in Photoshop

Our last Wallpaper of the Week was an image I had created using Pixelmator, and I really liked the outcome. The best part about it was that it was pretty easy to accomplish in Pixelmator, but I decided for perspective's sake to create the same effect in Photoshop. The process is easy as well, but with a few extra steps.

As in the previous tutorial, I will show you how to create a digital bokeh effect, but this time in Photoshop. The process is very easy and we will be using the super powerful Brush Engine, one of the coolest things in Photoshop.

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop. As usual I will use a nice scree resolution, 1920x1200 pixels. Fill the background layer with a very dark grey, not black. If you fill it with black the effect won't work. The color I used was #262626.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 2

Select the Ellipse Tool (U), and create a circle. Use black for the color, and go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Change the Fill Opacity to 50%. After that select Stroke. Use 10 pixels for the size, Inside for the Position and Black for the color.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 3

Select the ellipse and go to Edit>Define Brush. Name your brush and that's done. Now we have a new brush ;)

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 4

Go to Window>Brushes (F5). The first thing to do in the Brush Engine is to select our new Brush. The size won't matter because you will change that when you use it. The Spacing, however, is very important. Chage the value to 100%. After that, select the Shape Dynamics, then Scattering and Other dynamics. For the values use the image below.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 5

Before we start painting our bokehs let's create a new layer and fill it with a colorful gradient. I created a new layer and used the layer styles to do that but feel free to do the way you are used to. My gradient settings are as follows: Blend Mode is Overlay, Opacity is 100%, Style is Linear, and the Angle is 45º. The colors I used are: Yellow (#00085), Cyan (#1bdaeb), Purple (#9b3b81), Orange (#d27e34).

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 6

Let's create a new Folder in our Layer Palette. Rename the folder to Bokehs and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Then create a new layer, choose white for the color and select the Brush Tool (B). Now just paint some ellipses with our custom brush. For this first layer use a big size, like 500-600px.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 7

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. For this first layer use 20 pixels for the Radius.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 8

Create another layer and paint more brushes. This time however use a smaller size for the brush. After that go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 4 pixels for the Radius.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Step 9

Create another layer and repeat the previous step, this time however use a much smaller brush. Apply the Gaussian Blur to this layer as well, but use only 1 pixel for the Radius.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop

Conclusion

Now just add your logo and that's it. We have a nice wallpaper. The idea of this tutorial was once again to show the power of the Brush Engine. You can try different shapes for this same effect, like hexagons for example. Also you can play a bit with the blurs to add more depth to the final design. Now it's up to you.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop
Click on the image for a full preview

Video Tutorial

Below there is a quick video version illustrating the whole tutorial.

Digital Bokeh in Photoshop from fabio sasso on Vimeo.

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the PSD file used for this tutorial

Editor: David Parrott

About the author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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131 Comments

Great effect!!
Thanks for the tutorial, Fabio.

nice work! it's been a while since you've posted a tut!

@daniel actually Im posting tutorials every week, but the last 2 weeks I wrote Pixelmator tutorials only :)

Thanks for the comments.

Great tutorial guys, this blog gets updated so much that it is ridiculous.

Gr8!
Many thanks for new awesome wallpeper on my laptop :D

Is there an chance you could show the pixelmator tutorial as well? You say it's been posted but I can't find it...

it's so cool fabio.. thanx

http://www.giackop.com

Very nice effect+tutorial! I tryed to download it but the file in the .zip archive does not have an extension, i tryed to change it to .psd but id doens't work. Do i have a problem or is the archive?
Thank You,
Luciano

Great tutorial Fabio! I've always looked for a cool way to do this in Photoshop. Great video too by the way!

www.colorburned.com
-----------------------

Simple and effective design. The blurred background really pulls it together.

this is AWESOME !
Great tutorial !!
thanks .

this is so cool..i'll try it ;)

"..dont stop till you get enough..."

www.abduzeedo.com

I liked the way photoshop let you configure a brush nowadays.

I will make something like that in Picture to People when I have time.

----------------------------------------------
http://picturetopeople.blogspot.com
Get Inside Computer Graphics

Awesome, indeed! Here's my result: http://flickr.com/photos/jakhris/2884806635/

Cheers,
Chris - http://flickr.com/photos/jakhris/

The image made with pixelmator looks better. To get the photoshop image more looking like that and not so flat, add a adjustment layer 'curves' and bring the darks more to the right.

Awsome, great tutorial! Simple and beauty.

Simple yet effective.

Awesome.

thats great

love to see your creative abstract ideas fabio. Good job!
Flickr Photostream

Thank you for such awesome tutorials. You are amazingly inspirational. See the wallpaper I did with this tutorial: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heyjohnnyb/2890406554/

=)

sweeeet !!
http://www.col-sea.com/vb/uploaded/4676_1222657068.jpg

how is that ?:P :P

thanks . !

My stroke doesn't show up because it's just as transparent as the rest. Has anyone else had this problem? Do you know how to fix it?

=)

Melody
Go to Blending Options >> (Fill) and make it 50% after that make the stroke .

best of luck .

Great Tutorial! Thanks the PSD!

Great Tutorial! Thanks the PSD!

Really love it! I already made a wallpaper for my blog :)

I took it a step further; animation! http://www.vimeo.com/1896955

Hi I'm a beginner at using photoshop... In this tutorial i have a problem, I can't do the step Edit>Define Brush... can tell me why? and what did i do wrong?

Wow Fabio, that's awesome and my new wallpaper. Very nice tutorial for photoshop padawans...

very nice effect! great tutorial! i will make a try ;)

Great tutorial! Just used it to create image background for a website I am working on.
By the way, your color code for yellow is not correct.

Ashley try ctrl and left clicking on the layer thumbnail to highlight the object you are going to make a brush. Then go to edit>define brush.

I created my object (actually used a fleur de leis) filled with black..went to layer style...dropped the advanced blending to %50, stroked with 5px instead of 10px with black. Then after you hit ok...ctrl left click the layer thumbnail to make the selection of your object to define as a brush.

Also, would recommend adding a curves layer on top of all the other layers to darken your image a wee bit. I used left control 0 for output and 25 for input and right control 230 for output and 255 for input. The use of the curves layer is dependent on your colors for the gradient. Hope this helps....

AA

Great tutorial... Very simple yet effective...

Thanks for sharing

Owain

www.icomcreative.com

cool one, thx for sharing

Hello.
Thank you for a great and inspiring site.

Question: What grey-color did you use on the background? I cant seem to get the circles to glow like in the tutorial so Im wondering that it might be that Ive got the wrong grey color from the start.

Great tutorial, heres my results.

Wallpaper - 1900x1200
http://grahamphisher.com/wallpaper/bubbles.jpg

I solved the problem with the grey color so no need to write a response.

Simple and nice. Love it!
Thanks ;)

Ask forgiveness for my pessimism ENGLISH!
I would have to ask one thing! The tutorial "Awesome digital Bokeh effect in Photoshop" I was unclear from the phase 4 to phase 7 there is something wrong, let me explain why I can not get your same effect? the circles that overlap does not have the brilliance of your own! a person has published his work my result is the same .... very different from your! I serve you can help me a lot!

thanks and good job
chris

Thanks abduzeedo,this is my result..

Photobucket

original size
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm117/starlight_hafidz/awesomebokeh.jpg

thanx 4 the lovely tutorial..

lulla

mine doesn't glow =(, does anybody know why?

otherwise, insanely awesome, tahnkyou!

Makes my myspace look dreamy =D

http://nl.myspace.com/hoettienouw

Does this work on any version of Photoshop?

i cant do the define brush thing.

dude thats awsesome thankst

hey kaize.
? had the exact same problem coz I use ps7 :S
I covert the circular shape to a layer I maen I restarized the shape layer and tried again to define brush..and it worked for me..

When I apply the brush I get a grayscale effect. Also, the gradient layer seems too dark compared to yours. Any help would be great.

Thanks for the Tutorial

Forget it I figured it out I had me layers stacked wrong =)

I'm having issues and my bokeh's are looking rather DULL. Any ideas what I've done wrong??

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Nphj2lBSE1s/SQjxZxP0H9I/AAAAAAAAAOE/1EGDnPYH0Q...

Nice tutorial, although I got the same problem as TommyZidane.

All the bubbles turn grey.

Any ideas somebody?

Hey , This is a great tutorial , but when i got to step 3 it wouldn't let me click define brush preset on the edit menu
anybody know why?

Stupid questions.. when it says to "Let's create a new Folder in our Layer Palette.".. what does that mean? what is a folder?

very nice tutorial, I've only got one question, does anyone know why applying color dodge to a layer doesn't give the same results as it does when you apply it to a folder as in step 6? Thank you!

Kayla, he means create a 'group' to hold the layers for the Large, medium, and small brush strokes.

Thanks guys this was my result:

when i make the first circle shape, ps wont let me define it as a brush, any one have any ideas???

i`m a beginner but i start to feel like i`m stupid :)
i just can`t get this thing done. :(
and i like the efect so much ...
i will try over and over again tho`
thank you very much Abduzeedo, for me at least, u ROCK !

awsome, ecxellent, thanks...again and again, bye!

Great tutorial but im having a problem. When i brush over the gradient they come out grey and i don't get any of the colour coming through them. Could anybody point me to what im doing wrong?

Hey! Thanks for the tutorial! It looks great! sad I can't get it to work... I have the same prolem many people commented here, my circles don't glow...

When I paint with the brush I just created I get a flat 50% transparent circle without the solid border... maybe it's because my photoshop version? (CS3) anyone can help?

Thanks again!

Very nice work fabio, I like this one a lot.. thank you for sharing.

Excellent effect. I made a wallpaper out of it and absolutely love it. Thanks for the amazing tutorials you have here!

My result is here: http://munkybizness.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/moment-stopped/

Wwooow!! Really good and easy effect. Thanks for sharing. Good Luck

I think the problem people are having is this:

Pay attention to EXACTLY what he's saying. Don't skip a step and copy his steps word-for-word if you want to get it right.

But the major thing is this:

Create the ellipse on a new layer. In the blending options, change the FILL opacity to 50%. Not the opacity, the FILL opacity. It's right under the normal opacity.

Hopefully that should fix it.

Damm.. this is a really good tutorial, but i wasnt able to get the brush visible and it was for a silly stup..d reason!! had black as top colour!! HATE WHEN THAT KIND OF THINGS HAPPEN!!!

In order to define a new brush preset: Make sure the color of the ellipse is C0, M0, Y0, K100.

hey guys i have one question why is the gradient in step 5 not smooth. I dont get it why there are lines. Or its a problem with my pc or something? ;/

Thank you for a great wallpaper, it looks great on my laptop. I will try my hand at the tutorial and see how my one turns out lol lol. Thanks again

Awesome tut dude :-) thnks, here is my initial "test" with it: http://www.jscott.com.br/uxlab

txs

Hey do you think you can put the brushes online so i can download them cause im using photoshop elements6 and i cant do all of the crazy brush thingys thanx!

Thanks great tutorial and super site!
Here's my result, change it a little bit and the FX tutorial for the dots came in handy :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doxi/3095915639/

Great tutorial and website love it! I be hanging around some more here :-)

Here is my result:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doxi/3095915639/

That's actually horrid bokeh if you think it as a photographer. The outline shouldn't be there / should not be that visible.

The answer to eveyone's problem is in Step 1:

Fill the background layer with a very dark grey, not black. If you fill it with black the effect won't work. The color I used was #262626.

This is fantastic! While experimenting, I came up with another way to do this that adds some other possibilities. Create a black background. Create your brush. Create a new layer with your gradient, apply a black mask. Using your brush with white, apply your design on the mask. Blur as appropriate. Copy your gradient to another layer, apply black mask again, brush on design on the mask, blur as needed. Copy gradient to a new layer, apply black mask...etc..

You can apply the gradient in different directions in this fashion, too. I would have never thought of this without your AWESOME tutorials. Thank you!

The yellow is #ffff85 not #000085 (which is a medium blue). Nice tut. Thanks!

Wow, this is neat! I'll give it a try.
Thanks for the post.

Thank you! Pretty cool effect! Here's my first attempt:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v457/netfool/sublime.jpg

I've since improved on it quite a bit.

Made my own (fake) graphic design software with it:

http://l4dgg.com/files/79911230347323Sublime-Software-3.jpg

excelente el efecto q se logra
me gusto mucho ya lo voy q estar practicando
para ver q me sale
saludo desde Argentina

Great one, This is really very nice idea and design.

MY PORTFOLIO
WWW.CORNEROFART.COM

Great tutorial, thanks very much! :)

my attempt:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3477/3201733748_0c76d4a735.jpg

man that was great.............
I am s great fan of yours and have read almost every tutorial posted by u..
Here and on PSDTUTS.
Is there a way through which i can submit my wallpaper to you....
Want to know more about your wallpaper of the week stuff....
I hav lots of them..............
Again thanks for nice tut........:)

love it! thanks fabio!

here is my attempt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27885247@N02/3207176928/

here's what i come up with =D

Photobucket

love this tutorial :)
here is my first attempt.

sorry i forgot the link.. uppsi
http://i41.tinypic.com/2mq8f4g.jpg

HEY! You forgot to tell you had to pixelize the shape before saving it as a brush! Almost made me pull my hair out cuz I didn't get the same result.

Also, why is the effect different when you change the blending mode on the layer group and on the layer itself?

But thanx for this nice tut n e ways

Hey !!
I reached step 6 and i am a beginner. I don't know how to create a new layer and choose white for the color.Please help me.

Thanks

Looks awesome...more like this please!
----

I Cant Do it T.T In The Second Step 2 Say

Select the Ellipse Tool (U), and create a circle. Use black for the color, and go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Change the Fill Opacity to 50%. After that select Stroke. Use 10 pixels for the size, Inside for the Position and Black for the color.

Werr Should I Use The Black Color?

And Why The Stroke Dont Work I Mean It Works But Not Like In The Picture Only Around The Imagen I Dont Understand...

Is So Annoying

great tut fabio

Great tutorial! I used the result in my music site design!
www.kylesebestyen.net

I love these!

I applied them to my digital polaroids to create the vintage sunlit effect.

Thanks

Oh and I added a Tweet about the awesomeness of course ;)

http://twitter.com/entropiads

Nice work!
I tried it out and it was pretty good, but when I went to download yours for a comparison of techniques it opens the sample psd file as a file with no extension, and when i change it to a psd it fails to load :S
Perhaps a difference between Mac and Windows?
:s

Anyway, awesome tut!

I LOVE IT FABIO!;)THANK YOU SO MUCH!U HAVE A GREAT ONE!

Great tutorial!
I've added it to the tutorial directory at http://www.TutorialMagazine.com. Contact me at jorgen [at] tutorialmagazine.com if you want your new tutorials to show up there automatically :D

Jørgen
- editor of http://www.TutorialMagazine.com

So i get an email from Shutterstock. The header image made me remember this tutorial. So follow this link and check out this bokeh effect you can buy: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-22116535-abstract-glowing-circles-on-a-c...

So basically the person went on here did the tutorial, and then sells the design on Shutterstock. Amazing. Where are the ethics?

nice...!!!

Tu é o cara nisso aí. abraço.

estou fanzendo teus tutoriais.

GreaT Job

WoW

this is mine ;)

http://www.mltzm.com/vb/uploaded/1_pixel.jpg

check it

thanks Fabio

Great tutorial, I liked a lot it's simplicity.

Ho hoo, nice one!!!

Excellent tutorial. I love the simplicity and uniqueness of this one, plus the effect can be used in a variety of ways, which is great. Thanks for sharing this tutorial, keep up the good work!

Valeu, tuto muito genial, obrigado brother

wow.. i love it ..

that's cool
TKS For this tutorial

thanks will use it for my website:


http://askmeflash.com

Photobucket

Thank you for the tutorial.. here is what i've made.... I'm still a beginner so i hope you'll appreciate it ^___^ im very happy at my results this is a great tutorial

Okay I have to say that like some of you I was lost between step one and two. However, my thanks to those of you who spelled it out a little clearer.
To those who posted here... Awesome stuff!

And thanks again Fabio!

Just want to say i`m glad i found this site.
I am from Comoros and too bad know English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Contact information cami automotiveRead the manufacturing blog and find the latest automotive news at avtovaz, maker of lada cars in russia runs out of money."

Regards ;) Artemis.

I love this tutorial! Thank you, Fabio!

Thank you so much for this tutorial.

I did have some problems with it and had to go back and retry a bunch of times and finally got it, but my result is way different from everybody else's!

My question for you is at Step 5. You show the gradient you used, but in the example, it is very dark when applied to the page. You can barely see the difference between the colors until the circles are applied. Why does your gradient look so dark when applied to your background?

Yours is gorgeous, but I think mine is way too bright.
I played around with it a lot. Here are my results:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gemznbeadz/sets/72157618392644616/

I love this tutorial! Thank you.

Great tutorial, I liked a lot it's simplicity.

Ayetler

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Great tutorial, i gonna try it by myself i just wanna ask one thing...
What font you have used on your name?

Vou ficar por cá vendo outros tutorials bom site cara :)

Awesome Tutorial, Looks Amazing!

http://www.nyzux.net

The color at step 5 is wrong , Yellow is not #00085 , it's blue. anyway, very fanstactic! thanks for sharing, it's not a big deal , isn' tit- just the color! very awesome! great job man!

Can I make this in illustrator/coreldraw?

Thanks!
~ j

really amazing and Artistic touch
but really iv been stuck in doing step 6
especially
"Let's create a new Folder in our Layer Palette"

plz could u guide me becuae im sort of a begginer
and thank u so much for this effort and amazing lesson

Im stuck.when i apply the brush , the colour is still white, i changed the blend mode to colour dodge but still not working.

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