Bokeh, and how to pronounce it..

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stevewestern

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OK, so where does the word come from, and how do you say it - bok eh?, bokah or boquet, or what - maybe not the easiest thing to do online, but I need to know...
 
Always heard it was bouquet as in hyacinth!! :D
 
I pronounce it like Bogie

but with a k :)
 
There is a porn film term that sounds the same, it dont mean the same thing. But it might have some conection or not.
 
alexisonfire said:
pronounced the same as croquet :)
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Nah, the vowels are shorter. It's not boh-keh—i.e. hard O, hard E—but it's not bow-kay either: it's somewhere in between. Pronounce it as a Frenchman saying "boké", that's an approximation.
 
Even wiki has nothing much on pronunciation, just that it's from the Japanese for 'blur'
Like we didn't know that bit..

for me, it's Bo as in Derek and ke as in eh.

Dunno. I just know there's always a lot of fussy about it on dippyreview. odd when the bit that sells a photo is the sharp bit, not the blurry bit. ;)
 
I'm scared to say it at all after all that :help:

It's "the blurry stuff wot's behind the fing dat's gettin' photographed" from now on...
 
It officially pronounced "bok-keh". It's Japanese, so there's no western equivalent.
Sometimes spoken in Japanese as just "boke"
Oh yes.
 
The word "bokeh" comes from the Japanese word "boke" (pronounced bo-keh) which literally means fuzziness or dizziness.

Extracted from Ken Rockwells, What is Bokeh? Page.
 
so if it aint boke dont fix it .
 
Dunno what the trouble is ......

It's pronounced "Nikon 70-200mm VR f2.8 IF-ED G used at the 200mm end at f2.8"

:beer:
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The reason the extra 'h' was added to the end of the Japansese romaji was so that English speakers would know how to pronounce it properly. Guess that plan failed then!

Michael.
 
mij said:
The reason the extra 'h' was added to the end of the Japansese romaji was so that English speakers would know how to pronounce it properly. Guess that plan failed then!

Michael.
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Wasting their time there eh? We've done our best to simplify English and the bloody Yanks still manage to screw it up.

Bob (UK English) Baaab (US English)
 
So, does anyone know anyone Japanese they can ask? Surely folks living down in Lun-dun could be ask-in at a local Japanese restaurant or similar establishment how to actually pronounce this bo-keh thingie?

Steve...:)
 
Steve Randles said:
So, does anyone know anyone Japanese they can ask? Surely folks living down in Lun-dun could be ask-in at a local Japanese restaurant or similar establishment how to actually pronounce this bo-keh thingie?

Steve...:)
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Went to my local japanese restaurant and asked the guy there, this is his reply "cor blimly govnor, do i look like i know that arty farty lingo? born in ramsgit (Ramsgate) i is and bloody proud of it, now go on sling yer hook"
















Only joking, but wouldnt it make a great story. :lol:
 
I think all the members of Talk Photography should actually come up with a new word, it would make this so much easier. At this moment im agreeing with Janice
 
It is pronounced with each syllable equally stressed and short vowel sounds. So 'bo' as 'bob' and 'ke' as in 'ken'.

Michael.
 
The first part "bok" is pronounced like the "hock" in hockey. The second part, the "e" is flat like the e in "egg". That should be close enough. In Japanese the "k" is pronounced longer, but that's getting a bit complex! :)

In Japanese the word bokeh contains the connotation of "bad" - you wouldn't get "good bokeh", if you talk about bokeh the automatic assumption is bad. My wife (who is Japanese) found it highly amusing that photography had the idea of "good bokeh" :)

There is some disagreement over the meaning of bokeh, with some taking it as the blurred or out of focus areas, and others taking it only as how points of light are rendered within those out of focus areas - so it's a point to be wary of when talking of bokeh.
 
Moadib said:
The first part "bok" is pronounced like the "hock" in hockey. The second part, the "e" is flat like the e in "egg". That should be close enough. In Japanese the "k" is pronounced longer, but that's getting a bit complex!
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davidbridges said:
I think all the members of Talk Photography should actually come up with a new word, it would make this so much easier. At this moment im agreeing with Janice
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Why not just use DOF as in "Good use of DOF", and to make it arty-farty we could pronounce the "O" long as in DOOOOF

Steve...:)
 
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