Shaped disks called bokeh filters have long been used to change the shape of bokeh – but one hacker has just rigged a digital system that can change and even animate the shape of bokeh at the press of a button.
The hack comes from YouTuber and creator Ancient James. The YouTuber took an old phone LCD screen and a mount adapter to give a mirrorless camera programable, animated bokeh effects.
The video follows along as Ancient takes apart an old phone LCD screen – it looks like the screen from an old flip phone, though the creator doesn’t say specifically. Ancient works the screen into a mount adapter, along with other components like the lens from a pair of sunglasses and circuit boards.
Once assembled, the hacker uploaded a few different animations to the LCD screen, which can be swapped at the press of a button. Because those shapes are screen-based, not a shape from a cut-out disk, those bokeh shapes can also be animated rather than static.
When Ancient James turns on the different shapes, the result is a bokeh shape that moves and dances as the screen changes, which the YouTuber used for tricks like dancing snowflake bokeh. Then, he tried flowers, ring shapes, an exclamation point, and even the shape of a horse and raining letters.
Along with the small shapes that alter the bokeh, projecting animations to the full screen can create things loke a wobble affect across the whole video, or the appearance of lighting changes that are actually coming from inside the camera, not the scene itself.
The result is a fun but unusual take on animated bokeh. The DIY reminds me a bit of the hack using a 3D printer to create a spinning holster for shaped bokeh disks.
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Follow this tutorial to create DIY shaped bokeh disks. Or, browse the best diffusion lens filters.
