What filter was used on the background?

[W3Images]

I found an after effect that I like, but I am not sure how to replicate it. It reminds me of an old time filter used on film cameras, but I can't recall what it was called.

Any ideas??

[P_fuzz]

are you talking about the light leaks effects on the edges?

[W3Images]

Yes, the way the background now looks like highlighted circlular images all bunched together.

[W3Images]

Sorry, I like the light leaks but was more interested how the background was manipulated to have a dreamy spherical look to it. Mosaic with a blur???? I seem to remember from my film years a filter much like the star filter that could be used to do this.

[P_fuzz]

oh, the background is not a filter, it is an effect called bokeh...

In photography, bokeh (Originally /ˈboʊkɛ/,[1] /ˈboʊkeɪ/ boh-kay, and also sometimes heard as /ˈboʊkə/ boh-kə,[2] Japanese: [boke]) is the blur,[3][4] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,[5][6][7] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."[8] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively.[3] Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.
Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas.[3] However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

[W3Images]

Great!!! Do you know of any good actions for this effect?

[P_fuzz]

not sure it is possible to be done in post, even if you extract your main subject from the background and then apply a selective blur to the bg, you would still not get the circular effect aberration thing-y... maybe someone else knows a trick or two...

[mistermonday]

Originally Posted by W3Images

I found an after effect that I like, but I am not sure how to replicate it. It reminds me of an old time filter used on film cameras, but I can't recall what it was called.

Any ideas??

It's likely not a filter but a lens with a long focal length, opened to a wide aperture, and placed close to the subject with the background many feet behind the subject, and lots of ambient light. It's all optics.
Regards, Murray

[skydog]

however you can still create such an effect with a filter like boken by alien skin or with filters like topaz lens effects.

[oovidiu]

you can find boken textures on websites and add it on your photos with the right blending mode and opacity . Cheers!

[palms]

Or with a bokeh brush just google for them

[Chain]

For the absolute best result, do it in-camera like mistermonday suggested.
That is what has been done in the image you linked.

(Shallow depth-of-field so that the background is blurry. The exact shape of the "circles" depends on your optics.)

If doing it in Photoshop I would not suggest using a brush, as a brush will just paint some circles or bokeh samples on top of your background (like individual specks of bright out-of-focus dust). It will not look all that realistic. You need a special blur filter like the ones skydog suggested – you will have to carefully mask out your foreground for a good result.

[skydog]

agree chain for best results...but the cost of glass is a significant investment

[plugsnpixels]

For achieving the bokeh effect via third-party plug-ins, see here under "Focus adjustment". For the primary colors (which seem to have been added), one of the focus adjustment plug-ins, Topaz Lens Effects (Toy setting) can splash color in that manner.

[pellepiano]

Originally Posted by skydog

agree chain for best results...but the cost of glass is a significant investment

Both Nikon and Canon has very cheap 50´mm 1.8 lenses, capable of a very shallow depth of field.

plugins like Bokeh or Focal Point can do some nice blurs. Here is fast example, using sunlit leaves as a background and making dof with Focal Point and using the colors from the OPs posted image..