That said, you can affect the bokeh by your choice of aperture. The relative size of each blurry element in the background is determined by your f-stop. Choose a wider aperture, and you'll get more blur, and hence, more bokeh. , shot with different f-stops.

Your choice of background also plays a role. Bokeh is significantly more pronounced when you shoot bright lights, so including lots of contrast in your background--with lights and reflections--will give you a more noticeable effect. (I should point out that more is not always better. I'm explaining how to vary the effect, but it's up to you to decide how much of it you want to get in your photo.)

Want to get different--or "better"--bokeh in your photos? If you have a digital SLR, you might shop for lenses that produce nicer bokeh. In the last few years, I've noticed that reviewers have put a lot more emphasis on the quality of the bokeh in lens reviews, so keep an eye out for that.

But rather than spending a ton of money on a new lens, here's a much more practical option: Just fake it. After all, this is digital photography we're talking about, where you can have Nixon shake hands with Bigfoot and put your kids in Apollo moon landing photos. So it should come as no surprise that it's a snap to dress up the bokeh in your photos.