I really like the blurred lights I see in some night shots here and elsewhere, so I created an exercise to simulate the effect. I managed to get a result I was happy with and thought it may be worth sharing with other novices. Some more experienced members are welcome to build on this or submit similar (i.e. better) examples of the effect.
I took a string of battery operated coloured Christmas tree “fairy lights”, and wrapped them around 3 or 4 spindles on the staircase. I then put a subject (I used a few cushions) 3-4 metres / 10-12 feet away to focus on from 0.5 metres / 2 feet further back. After a few attempts fine tuning aperture and shutter speed, I was amazed at how much blur there was from these very tiny (3mm) lights. The lights were not really all that close to each other, but the blurred result created a lot of overlap producing the secondary colours.
Comments most welcome. Shot with Canon 7D, 50mm, manual, f1.8, 0.5s, ISO100, tripod and self-timer. As shot, no edits.
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