If you ever wanted to try to capture beautiful bokeh with your camera, there isn’t a better time than right now. A Christmas tree lit with bright lights is the perfect backdrop. As a bonus, you might even get that perfect Christmas card photo.

Some of these were taken with my 50mm and some with my 85mm. I couldn’t tell much difference in how they performed in this situation.

I took this first picture Tuesday and it wasn’t long before I was completely sucked in to the bokeh behind my subject, totally losing my focus and going crazy over colored lights.

Now I make someone sit in front of the tree every day.

Here’s how to do it. Set your aperture its lowest value. Both my 50 mm and the 85 mm I used it will go to 1.8. If you have some natural light in the room to light up your subject it will really help. I opened a door, but in some photos my subject still seemed too dark.

Position your subject a few feet from the tree. Now focus on your subject and your camera will do the rest. The background will blur and those lights will sparkle.

It’s holiday magic.

You won’t want to miss it.

If you get some shots please share them with me. Either leave a comment with a link to your blog or you can post them on my fan page on Facebook. I’d love to see them.