Photography For Dummies : Bokeh

Bokeh, also known as “Boke” is one of the most popular subjects in photography. The reason why it is so popular, is because Bokeh makes photographs visually appealing, forcing us to focus our attention on a particular area of the image. The word comes from Japanese language, which literally translates as “blur”.

So What is Bokeh?

Basically, bokeh is the quality of out-of-focus or “blurry” parts of the image rendered by a camera lens – it is NOT the blur itself or the amount of blur in the foreground or the background of a subject. The blur that you are so used to seeing in photography that separates a subject from the background is the result of shallow “depth of field” and is generally simply called “background blur”. The quality and feel of the background/foreground blur and reflected points of light, however, is what photographers call Bokeh. 

The lens cap is in focus and sharp (which means that it is inside the depth of field), while the background is out of focus (which means that the background is outside the depth of field). The small or “shallow” depth of field is the result of standing relatively close to the subject, while using a large aperture. See those round circles of different color on the right side of the image? Those are light reflections and they are circular because that’s how the lens rendered them. In this case, the soft “feel” of those circular areas is what photographers would call “good bokeh”. While some photographers argue that bokeh is just about the quality of the circular light reflections, many others, including myself, believe that bokeh is about the quality of the entire out-of-focus area, not just reflections and highlights..

Good and Bad Bokeh

Remember, bokeh is rendered by the lens, not the camera. Different lenses render bokeh differently due to unique optical designs. Generally, portrait and telephoto lenses with large maximum apertures yield more pleasant-looking bokeh than cheaper consumer zoom lenses. For example, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D lens produces exceptionally good-looking bokeh, while the Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G DX lens produces poor bokeh at the same focal length and aperture – all due to differences in optical designs of both lenses. Again, I am not just talking about the background blur; all lenses are capable of producing out of focus blur, but not all lenses are capable of rendering beautiful bokeh.

So, what is a good or beautiful bokeh? A good bokeh pleases our eyes and our perception of the image and therefore, the background blur should appear soft and “creamy”, with smooth round circles of light and no hard edges. Here is an example of beautiful bokeh rendered by the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens:

Pay attention to the smooth background behind the child’s face. The out-of-focus areas look creamy and the edges are soft with beautiful transitions between the blurry areas. That’s exactly what you would call good bokeh!

How about bad or ugly bokeh? Although a lot of people argue that there is no such thing as a bad bokeh, I still call whatever distracts my eyes “bad”:

This pic over here is not really a bad bokeh if its not because of the contrast of the birthday party hat at the background..distraction right?bad creamy bokeh..

Bokeh shapes

The shape of the reflected light in out of focus areas depends on the lens diaphragm. Many older lenses such as Nikon 50mm f/1.4D have 7 straight blades in their diaphragms, which results in heptagon-shaped bokeh(refer to pic above,the one with lens cap)

Most new lenses, now come with 9 rounded blades, which render round bokeh like my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 APO DG HSM.

How to get good Bokeh

So, how do you get a good bokeh in your images? As I have pointed out above, bokeh depends on the type of lens you are using. While lower-end consumer zoom lenses will yield unpleasant bokeh, fixed (prime) lenses and most professional zoom lenses with fast apertures yield good-looking bokeh. Do you know if your lens produces good bokeh? Try this: focus on an object from a very close distance (as close as the lens will allow, keeping the object in focus), making sure that there are no objects at least 5-6 feet behind it. Make sure to be on the same level as the object itself, so that you are not looking down on it. Do not use a plain wall as your background – try to find a colorful background, preferably with some lights on it. A Christmas tree is a perfect background for a bokeh test. Once you find a good test subject with a suitable background, set your camera to “Aperture Priority” mode and set your aperture to the lowest number. On most consumer zoom lenses, the lowest aperture is typically f/3.5, while on prime and professional zoom lenses, it can be between f/1.2 and f/2.8. Once the aperture is set to the lowest value, take a picture of your subject and take a look at the rear LCD of your camera. The subject should be in focus, while the background is blurred. If you have a good lens, the bokeh should be soft and fuzzy, looking pleasing to the eye as shown in the example above. The circular reflections should be round and soft, with no hard edges.What you say my friend?no prime lens?no expensive zoom lens?its ok,try with you kit lens.How you ask?follow the instruction above but a lil bit different,zoom to the max,focus  on the closest subject and make sure the aperture value is at its widest.same goes here make sure no obstuction behind the subject and you should be able to get a good bokeh.Its all trial and error..so some tweaking of setting might be needed if you dont get the result you wanted.

Theres another picture with christmas tree in focus and the bacground filled with bokeh but the size of the pisture is too big.I upload this instead..just plain bokeh from the christmas tree.

What lenses create great bokeh?

There are many lenses that create great-looking bokeh. Most fast prime lenses with round-blade apertures such as Nikon 85mm f/1.4 or Canon 85mm f/1.2USM create exceptionally good-looking bokeh. The lower-cost version of the same lens – Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and Canon 85mm f/1.8USM also produce beautiful bokeh. One of my favorite lenses for beautiful bokeh is the Nikon 50mm f/1.4, but be careful about the older Nikon 50mm f/1.4D or the 50mm f/1.8D, since they both produce heptagon-shaped bokeh as shown above. There are too many lenses to list, so I recommend doing some more research on different lenses, based on your photography needs.Dont be lazy Google up the information..

I hope all the pic and video clip help..Go and experiment,you might cought yourself drooling by just watching your own snapshot.