Very intuitive shot, I still can't figure it out. Love it though!

Thanks Helen. Sorry for late reply, just saw it.

Very creative and a super image! Really well done (and fascinating, too!)

Indeed :)

Yes it's only the bokeh that's affected, it's amazing how light behaves a.

Jrdu, I can see why you are confused, I tried to fit everything in the first pic in the drop box. The carton with the note was actually on the lens when I was shooting this pic (Hence, acting like a second lens aperture). In fact you can see that the carton is cylindrical. I put it on the lens like a sleeve. You are right, the cardboard would block the view. Sorry again for making things more complicated than they had to.

I still don't understand...(isn't the scene blocked by the black cardboard - the whole image comes in through that musical note shaped opening?). Very clever and a nice result.

Thank you Jill

Well this certainly is innovative...and works...well done Christakis.

Thanks for the comments Ernest and Ron. To be honest it's the first time I tried it myself. It's not as complicated as it sounds.

Clever stuff Chris & an excellent result. I must give this idea a try - sounds rather complicated but hopefully all will become clear.

Creative & clever, a great interpretation, very well done.

How is linking to tutorials disrespect? Chill, no harm done lol... :)

I don't want to disrespect Chris and his clever work here so I put a link in the discussion thread.

I think these young f...I mean bucks are getting way too clever for us Tommy a. I've always known about bokeh being affected by the shape of the iris but I had no idea you could make shapes like this. The effect is amazingly clear & perfect for the pod thingys, great set up & picy mate.

Thanks for the comments guys. Tommy, this was very easy. The basic idea is: An out of focus light source takes the shape of your camera's aperture. If you shoot wide open it will be a blurred circle, if you step down the aperture it will take the shape of your aperture (hexagon for example). All I did was create my own "aperture shape" by cutting the shape I wanted on a paper and putting that in front of my lens. I actually created a "sleeve" for my 50mm lens so that it stays on without me holding it. I then used my christmas tree lights to get multiple light sources to get multiple notes. I put a pic in the drop box to make things a lot simpler to understand. In the pic you will see the note light sources, the sleeve and the ipod.

To create the white spot light on the ipod, I wrapped a magazine round my flash to create a snoot, set it to Manual flash power (1/128) and hold it directly on top. I will post a second pic in the drop box...

Clever guys Christakis and Doug. Why don't I ever think of such things. Maybe because I still can't see how this was done. I think it would have to be many holes in the cover over only the upper half of the lens. The question is how did you make so many tiny note shapes and what was the light source.

Very nifty idea here! And nice dof and composition.

Yup, that's exactly what I did... This is straight out of the camera. Only downsized, obviously!

It's a creative setup shot with the dancing notes. I once made a custom cover for a lens out of black paper where I cut out a small shape in the paper and covered the lens with it. It makes the bokeh take on the shape of the cutout.