Heart Shaped Lights using a Camera

I wish I would have shared this during the holidays last year, but I was so busy I didn’t even think about sharing this until now! Our Christmas tree and Christmas decorations that were in the living room are all put away, but I haven’t taken down this tree in our master bedroom.

We had the Christmas tree in our bedroom lit up last night, and I all of a sudden thought of a trick I learned 10 years ago when I was doing photography full time. HEART SHAPED LIGHTS! You can get this just by using your camera and some paper!

You’ll need a camera (Using a prime lens works the best but isn’t necessary. I used a 35mm 1.4), piece of paper, pencil, scissors, and tape.

• Place lens on piece of paper, trace, and then cut.
• Fold the circle in half.
• Draw a half heart in the center of one of the sides and then cut.
• Tape the piece of paper on the lens.

Now set your aperature! Aperature is how soft and blurry the background of an image is. Make sure your lens is at a low f-stop for it to work the best! I had mine at the lowest my lens could go which was f/1.4.

You DO NOT want to focus on the lights. You want the lights as the blurry background so focus away from the lights. In the image below, I focused on my bed and the lights in the background then became heart shaped lights!

The more you focus away from the subject, the larger the hearts! Here’s what I did with the shot below: I focused on the headboard (which you don’t even see in the frame) and then went back to my frame and took a photo.

I stepped back and focused away even more…

Also, you may have to turn the paper if you’re wanting to photograph in either portrait or landscape. Here’s photographing in landscape:

Here’s when I turned my camera and as you can see the hearts are now turned:

It’s great with Christmas lights but can you can also use it on candles, street lights, etc. Have fun and get creative with this new trick! Make sure to tag me if you decide to try it! I’d love to see!