Bokeh

Most people don’t realize exactly how new the term Bokeh, as pertaining to photography, really is (it was probably coined around the late 1990’s). Derived from the Japanese word bokeaji meaning “fuzzy”, bokeh refers to the area of a photograph that is out of focus. That’s it. Simple really.

Often, however, you will see the term bokeh used as an aesthetic measuring term such as “good Bokeh” and that’s where it can get a little fuzzy (yes, I did that on purpose). As in anything else in photography (or other art for that matter) image appeal is left to the viewer.

First, let’s take a quick glimpse into what creates bokeh anyway.

Lenses render out-of-focus (think shallow depth of field) points of light as circles that are either hard edged or soft edged (not always circles).

“Good Bokeh” is typically defined by the softer edged blurs.

Here’s the deal. A perfectly made lens (corrected for aberrations) actually produces hard edged circles of light!

Lens manufacturers, in recognizing this trend, have combated the “problem” by curving aperture blades or adding more aperture blades to create “better circles of light” instead of polygonal shapes. Furthermore, most lens manufacturers have lenses where you can actually control the rendering of the out of focus area.

Does it really matter how good the bokeh is?

It depends on who you ask. Me personally? I never really worry about it. My focus in photography has always been on emotion and composition first. Everything else usually falls in place. Others, I’m sure, will disagree.

That being said, I’ve commented on images that had really Good Bokeh.

Clear enough?

Photograph Apple Bokeh!!!! by krashingmotions. For more photography by this artist see KrashingMotions

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you're new here, thanks for visiting Your Photo Tips. I hope you found the website helpful and informative. To stay updated on all new articles as they come out you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

8 Comments Already

yotis Said,

July 9th, 2008 @6:12 am

Never heard of this term before but is always time to learn about something new. Bokeh = Depth of Field (DOF) somehow?

Cheers!

the_wolf_brigade Said,

July 9th, 2008 @6:51 am

For me personally, I love it. My 50/1.4 is my favourite lens, and it rarely makes it past f4. That being said, there is a time and a place, although it’s my dream to own one of those Canon 7’s with a f0.95 lens….that or the Jupiter 85mm with 15 apertures blades (more pleasing bokeh)…

Jason Anderson Said,

July 9th, 2008 @6:42 pm

How ironic! I wrote about this subject on my own blog just the other day! Great minds do indeed think alike! Interestingly, found out that the spelling of “bokeh” originally was “boke”, but to help clarify the pronunciation to the English world, Michael Johnston (of The Online Photographer fame) added the “h” in an email conversation he had. Cool stuff, huh? For anyone interested, when I was researching it, the TOP article was found here:
http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/01/bokehwhat-it-is.html

The Rev. Said,

July 10th, 2008 @1:36 pm

Good info-

I’m with you on letting everything “fall into place” to a certain degree.

kamikazephotos Said,

July 12th, 2008 @10:52 am

Interesting article. I never actually thought about the origination of the word, but I definitely shuttered at the dense wikipedia page on the subject. I love your layman’s version better suffice it to say.

I agree with you about emotion and composition first…although I do have to admit, sometimes I have “pre-idea’d” a situation and said, “This would be good at f/1.4″ and went from there. Nonetheless, great topic.