What is Bokeh?
In the Beginning…
Even if you are just starting out on your photography journey, you have probably heard a few photographers exclaim in awestruck tones, “look at that bokeh!" So, what is this foreign term that they are referring and what does it have to do with photography?
Well, bokeh is the aesthetically pleasing dreamy soft out-of-focus background in photos. More specifically they are referring to the quality of blur (or the dreamy soft background) in the photo. This happens when you have set your camera to a shallow depth of field or a wide open aperture. Many times you may also, distinguish bokeh as the effect of little balls or shapes of light appearing to dance in the background of photographs.
It is completely understandable if the term strikes you as odd. The Japanese word ‘boke’ roughly translate to '“blur”, “haze”, or “fuzziness”. A Photo Techniques editor Mike Johnston deserves the credit for transporting this term into the English world when he used it in a collection of photography articles in 1997. When Johnston brought the word to English speakers, he also wanted to make sure it was safe from mispronunciation. He added ‘h’ onto the the end of the word, to make ‘bokeh’. To pronounce it as it was intended, say the bo as you would ‘both’ and the ‘keh’ as you would in ‘kept’.
Why Use Bokeh…
You may be asking yourself, why would you want a blurred photo? Photographs are supposed to be sharp not blurry. But, here is the thing with bokeh, although the background is blurred, the subject should still be in focus and sharp. This creates a contrast between the subject and the background, so that our eye is drawn to the in focus subject. By using bokeh we are effectively showing the viewer what we want them to focus on, and they really have no choice because the rest of the photograph is literally a blur.
What makes good Bokeh…
How soft and dreamy the background looks
No hard edges in the circles making up the background blur
How Can Bokeh be Achieved…
Bokeh is produced by using a lens that opens up to a wide aperture, allowing more light into your camera’s sensor. An aperture, such as f3.5 or less is ideal. However, if you only own lenses that go down to f4, you can definitely use those to start getting some bokeh in your backgrounds.
Personal Starter favourites:
Canon EF 50mm 1.4 AF USM Lens *** Good Starter
Canon EF 100mm 2.8 USM Macro Lens
More Expensive Favourites:
Canon EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm 2.8 IS III USM Lens
If you are not using a DSLR, you can also adjust the settings on your point-and-shoot camera or cell phone or tweaking a photo using a smartphone app or Photoshop to mimic this effect.
There is no one use for bokeh. For you as the photographer, the effect is really a chance for you to express your creativity: Learning how to take a bokeh photograph is easy; after you know the basics, you can start to have fun with the composition.
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