On Sun, 10 Feb 2002 20:37:28 -0800, Valerie S. wrote:

>I'm trying to get the effect of an out of focus blur. Specifically, I'm
>trying to have small lights with the enlarged appearance and octagonal
>shape. Not the fuzziness of most blurs. I think it's almost similar to a
>star filter or something.

This is due to shallow DOF from the use of a long lens
and out of focus background with light sources in it
(and the lens diaphragm of a particular number of blades
not being wide-open). For examples, see:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/sunplant1.html - I use this
effect (and one rarely used, the appearance of subject
shadows in the out-of-focus light spots) in stills, but
due to the great DOF with the small CCDs and lenses,
this is hard to do in video...