Bokeh?

treeman

treeman

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Being old enough to remember a time when the term didn't exist in photography, but at the same time I can't remember what we did call the 'out of focus' area, or did we call it anything?

Maybe we didn't use to talk about it much before? :shrug:

Anyone got any thoughts?
 
Large aperture background blur, if anything.
 
I don't even know how to pronounce it lol.
Erm, 'out of focus highlights'? Admittedly, bokeh is less of a mouthful :)
 
I have known it as shallow depth of field since the 1950s
 
Some people refer to all out of focus areas as bokeh but I was under the impression the term refers to our of focus highlights e.g. Fairy lights on Xmas tree
 
treeman said:
Being old enough to remember a time when the term didn't exist in photography, but at the same time I can't remember what we did call the 'out of focus' area, or did we call it anything?

Maybe we didn't use to talk about it much before? :shrug:

Anyone got any thoughts?
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Same here :)
 
treeman said:
Maybe we didn't use to talk about it much before? :shrug:
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Of course, there's lots of things we didn't talk about back then :)
A brief phase of 'oh how cool is that' at the doughnut out of focus highlights from Big Cats (catadioptric/mirror lenses 400mm +) should never be talked about again :lol:
 
just blur
background foreground etc ,there seems to be more of a trend now to think saying it in a different languages makes thing somehow better .
my pet hate is creme anglaise (spelling?) ,god im turning into a grumpy old man:D:D
 
Always thought bokeh was the patterns, attractions caused by the shallow dof, rather than simply the shallow dof (although heard it means blur as well in japanese, but this isnt simply the blur part)

Eg. 'attractive bokeh' would be what it says, maybe rounded or octagonal blobs to put it simply (defined by blades in aperture) and discussed as part of a lens property 'has great bokeh' et etc...the assumption being the lens it is already a given it is fast or long, or simply subject long way from background (focal distance and focal length being different thing)...things influencing dof rather than 'bokeh' defined by blades.

(Dodgy typing on the iphone)
 
Thanks for the definition. Thats the best thing about this forum. You can learn some think new every day.
 
joescrivens said:
They aren't the same thing

Shallow dof causes the bokeh.
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Thats my thinking and the property of the blades to help it along to give it attraction or not as case may be (?)

Like doing old trick of heart shaped cut out bit of paper infront of lens will give heart shaped bokeh, rather than do anything for the dof which will be a pre requisite for allowing bokeh level....
 
The other thing about this forum, i could be talking rubbish :) but thats my view of bokeh anyway...someone be along with a different pov no doubt :)
 
POAH said:
comes from the jap word boke to mean haze or blur
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And is pronounced as you would the question to a drunk Glaswegian standing over a pool of his own vomit..

"Boke, eh?" :naughty:
 
Carter64 said:
Big Cats (catadioptric/mirror lenses 400mm +) should never be talked about again :lol:
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:lol: I'd forgotten about them! very ugly bokeh.


Interesting that 'Bokeh' means the look of the out of focus blur rather than the blur itself.

I wonder if modern lenses render the look so differently between lenses, that someone decided to name the effect?
 
SnappyHappy said:
Thats my thinking and the property of the blades to help it along to give it attraction or not as case may be (?)

Like doing old trick of heart shaped cut out bit of paper infront of lens will give heart shaped bokeh, rather than do anything for the dof which will be a pre requisite for allowing bokeh level....
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd agree with that.

Shallow depth of field is caused by large aperture, distances between foreground, subject, background and focal length which should be identical for all lenses. However bokeh won't necessarily look the same at the same focal length, distance and aperture for two given lenses.

Bokeh is the 'quality' of the blur caused by aperture blade number, blade shape and lens construction.


You can see three 50mm len bokeh examples here http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-50mm-f-1.8-II-Lens-Review.aspx
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
And is pronounced as you would the question to a drunk Glaswegian standing over a pool of his own vomit..

"Boke, eh?" :naughty:
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Thats how use westerners try and say it anyway. Along boke-hay, boke-yay, boh-ka, boo-ka, boh-kay, bock-ah, bock-eh, bock-ah and a lot more no doubt ;)
 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Pretty good description of it here. It doesn't really sound clear on whether it is the actual blur or the quality of the blur - "that shot has bokeh" or "that shot has good bokeh"

All I know is that a 5 blade cheap prime definitely doesn't have nice bokeh.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
And is pronounced as you would the question to a drunk Glaswegian standing over a pool of his own vomit..

"Boke, eh?" :naughty:
Click to expand...

Last time I threw up drunkly I said its ok to my wife and used my pillow case to catch it lol
 
Since the OP's question has been answered, I think I can now comment on that to say, surely that just filters out the lumps?
 
First seen used/applied to photography in 1996. And yes shallow depth of field creates blur/out of focus regions/bokeh they are not one and the same.
And the creme anglaise thing? Don't understand it. There is no French word for custard, with exception of the French Canadians who started to use cossetard which probably came from medieval words such as croustard.
There is enough of a difference with custard and creme anglaise (English cream) with the latter being lighter and thinner and with custard being around and hardly changed since Roman times then im pretty sure there have been plenty of names for it.
And if creme anglaise is in my larousse gastranomique then its legit
 
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