Bokeh is a Japanese term that describes the blurred effect in a wide aperture photo made from a shallow depth of field. Bokeh is typically characterized visually by the blurred refractions of light falling in the shape of the camera lens. Most traditional camera lenses are hexagonal, with video camera lenses being more circular. You might have seen these blurred circular shapes in the background of super-close-up portrait shots. While most phone cameras don’t give you the extreme bokeh effect, some can. Otherwise, there are some great workarounds and tips to achieve bokeh-style photos from your camera phone.
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Using reflective light
Perhaps a cheat’s way to bokeh
Most smartphone lenses aren’t built with the same features as traditional SLR or DSLR camera lenses. Due to that, it’s difficult to authentically create a bokeh effect using your phone’s camera.
If your phone doesn’t have the typical lens or aperture capabilities to produce a real bokeh effect, you can fake it in your photos to an extent using reflective light. Use a multi-fractured reflective surface — such as a disco ball, glass mosaic, or glossy wind chime — to utilize how the light reflects onto other surfaces. Sometimes, this can also be achieved from light sneaking through tree leaves from a far distance.
This technique won’t supply a bokeh-style background. However, it can supply bokeh-inspired textures in your photos shining onto your subjects. It’s a nice artistic approach.
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Edit with Snapseed’s Lens Blur setting
Free and customized lens blurring
Snapseed is my favorite free mobile editing tool. Its library of features includes its Lens Blur tool. It’s simple to use and helps you achieve a natural-looking depth of field, supplying similar bokeh vibes as you’d get using a wide aperture on a camera.
The tool lets you drag and shape the area of focus and choose how wide the area of blur transitions and spreads. You can also choose the intensity of the blur and the vignetting of the edges of your photo. Although, vignetting isn’t an apparent effect of traditional bokeh blurring.
Depending on what’s in the image background and foreground, you may not see results like lens-shaped bokeh of traditional artistic value. However, bokeh doesn’t rely on the light reflection in its blur to be considered bokeh. It means that a narrow depth of field achieves a smooth, out-of-focus blur in the background of an in-focus, sharp subject photo. That can be whatever you want it to be.
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Edit with Lightroom Mobile’s Lens Blur setting
Lightroom Premium users only
Lightroom’s Lens Blur feature is a Premium-only tool. It’s one of the few Premium features in Lightroom that makes the Premium subscription worthwhile. Lightroom’s Lens Blur tool is more complex than Snapseed’s Lens Blur tool, but the idea is similar. If you want to edit in a more authentic bokeh blur, Lightroom is the way to do it.
Lightroom Mobile’s Lens Blur uses AI to detect the foreground and background of your image. You can use a slider to choose the amount of blur to apply, from 0 to 100 in intensity. For the best authenticity of a bokeh-style blur, choose the shape of the lens the effect uses. There are six lens shape options: Circle, Bubble, 5-Blade, Ring, Oval, and Cat Eye.
Tap the shape to preview the result before applying.
Although the built-in AI does a good job determining foreground versus background, you can refine it using the Focus Range option. Use a slider or select the foreground area of the photo to make the in-focus area wider or more shallow for personalized results.
With the right photo, Lightroom Mobile’s Len Blur effect presents almost perfect results. Editing in bokeh-style blur doesn’t work on all photo types, especially those that lack light reflections in the area you wish to blur.
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Using my camera’s Portrait Mode
Computerized bokeh blur
Using Portrait Mode when taking portraits from your phone is a Millennial tell, according to Gen Z-ers. If you don’t want to be clocked as being over 30, steer away from this tip. If you don’t care or want to experiment, using Portrait Mode sometimes creates bokeh results.
Portrait Mode in most phone cameras uses the computer to simulate the effect that a wide aperture would give: a tack-sharp subject with a deep blurred background. Portrait Mode often isn’t perfect, but that’s usually only an issue when sharing photos with eagle-eyed friends or photography enthusiasts.
To create bokeh this way, find a well-lit area for your subject and the background of the photo. There should be enough texture in the background for the bokeh blur to create shapes from the blur, so don’t go with a plain, neutral color. Trees and natural light work best.
Portrait Mode kicks in at the highest gear with a sharp focus on the subject. You can to ensure sharpness and no motion blur. You may have to tap the auto-focus on the subject through your phone screen to ensure that’s where the focus is. Your background should blur perfectly with a tight crop against your in-focus subject.
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Changing my phone’s aperture or focal settings
Not available in all phones, but great when it is
Not all smartphone cameras have variable aperture settings, but the ones that do offer custom ways to achieve bokeh effects in your photos. My Xiaomi 14T Pro has variable focal settings, which can change how blurry the background of an image appears, replicating how you’d create bokeh from a traditional camera.
True bokeh relies on reflections of light blurring into the shape of the lens. This can only happen with a shallow enough depth of field, otherwise known as using a wide aperture, which can’t be customized on many phones. If the option is available, jump on it. Otherwise, playing with focal lengths and focus settings on your phone can simulate similar results even without specified Aperture settings.
Bokeh on the go is achievable
You might not create perfect bokeh from your phone, but there are options. Bokeh is an artistic photography style that doesn’t have strict rules about what is or is not bokeh. It has a larger focus on heavily blurred backgrounds. Lens-shaped blur effects are a bonus characteristic. For true blurred bokeh style, use a camera with a wide aperture lens, but a phone and some editing tools are good enough when it matters.
