This article is very full subjective opinions. Be patient and understanding.
Bokeh is the “character” of an image outside the focus area, its intensity, and its effect on the overall image. Roughly speaking, this is how blurry the image out of focus area. The term "blurry" is not entirely technical, but as much as possible to describe what happens to the image outside the focus area. The image is “blurred” as if the artist took and mixed colors.
When focusing, the camera sharpens only those objects that the lens focused on. All other objects in the frame are not sharp. Moreover, objects can be very highly blurred, or blurred just a little bit. Usually, the image clearly shows the area in which the objects are sharp. Such a zone can be measured in width (depth).
For the width of this zone is responsible DOF lens - Гlubina Рkeenly Иimaged Пrostranstva. English equivalent of DOF. Bokeh is directly related to the blur zone, which is the back of the depth of field. Therefore, influencing the depth of field, you can objectively affect the bokeh.
The following parameters are responsible for the intensity (strength) of the blur (bokeh):
- Focal length of the lens... The longer the focal length of the lens, the easier it is to blur the background and increase the degree of blur.
- Aperture lens. The larger the relative aperture (the smaller the F number), the easier it is to achieve strong blurring of the image in the non-sharpen area and increase the blur circles outside the depth of field.
- Aperture View. Typically, when closing, the diaphragm cannot remain as round as when fully open. This is due to the limited number of aperture blades. With closed apertures, instead of discs (circles, circles), polygonal figures appear in the blur zone.
- Focus distance... The closer the focuser position is to the MDF (minimum focusing distance), the stronger the blur will be. Therefore, even with a “dark” lens, you can get good blur by shooting close-ups when the lens is in focus as close as possible. Conduct an experiment, take your whale lens (or any other), turn off autofocus, set the MDF and try to take off any little thing, for example, a flowerpot, a cup of tea. Then look at the out-of-focus area, it will be very blurry.
- Optical circuit lensa, which, in fact, forms an unusual pattern for each lens separately. Personally, I consider a good optical circuit with nice bokeh, a Sonnar circuit. But now it’s just a sea of other good lenses with incomprehensible multi-lens designs and nice bokeh. Optical design of some lenses, such as Nikon AF DC-Nikkor 105mm 1: 2 D Defocus Image ControlIt has a special ring for bokeh control.
- Indirectly affects matrix size. Simply, with the same lens for the same composition (frame composition) with a different matrix size, there will be a different focusing distance, therefore, the intensity of the blur is higher. More details in the section on Crop factor.
- Background and foreground. It is very important that there is an understanding that the blur pattern depends on what will blur. Bright single light sources usually turn into luminous discs, and a uniform background into soft plastic porridge.
You can, of course, still use soft filters, gradient, point filters for blurring.
Objectively, you can only talk about discs in the blur zone, their size, type, shape. I call these discs “rounds”. The discs have a peculiarity - a transition from a light inside to a darker outside. Bokeh in which discs have a small border width are commonly referred to as “fish scales”.
The shape of the light spot (disk) depends very much on the shape of the diaphragm. At maximum aperture, almost all prime lenses have a smooth aperture hole. When you close the diaphragm, its blades form all kinds of patterns. The most common are nuts circular saws, rectangles, squares. You can make the form yourself. Below is a snapshot of the usual 7 coal nuts.
What types of bokeh are there?
Usually, Western literature distinguishes two types of bokeh: hollywood (Hollywood Style Bokeh) and cream bokeh (Creamcheese Bokeh). I almost never saw divisions into these two types in the CIS, but I adhere to such a simple gradation.
Hollywood Bokeh - bokeh, in which glowing circles (disks) are pronounced in the out-of-focus area. Moreover, it may not be circles, but rectangles, stars, everything, anything... Why Hollywood? Because in Hollywood films, a lot of evening and night scenes are shot in this bokeh style. For example, in the movie Die Hard at 01:05:00 and throughout the movie, the blur discs have a very elongated vertical ellipsoidal shape. In general, just go to the cinema and observe the blur zone, you will find a lot of useful conclusions for yourself.
Cream bokeh - unlike the Hollywood one, it is designed to make the blur with a real “blurry” method, without a variety of bright rounds. In this case, the blur becomes like a cream in consistency. I always think of sweet eclairs when I think of creamy bokeh. Creamy bokeh is difficult to achieve, because all the points in the out-of-focus area try to turn into glowing discs in the image. Units of lenses can produce true creamy bokeh. Actually, an example of such a bokeh is below.
In its pure form, creamy bokeh is very difficult to meet, mainly all photos with pronounced bokeh have a Hollywood or mixed style.
Doubling, tripling of lines
Very often, you can come across opinions of the type "image troit, double". This means that the bokeh has an unnatural appearance, in which parts of the objects in the out-of-focus area bifurcate. This can be quite dangerous, for example, when a person's blurred hand due to "double vision" gets 6-10 fingers of visual deception.
Bokeh plays a huge role in macro photography and portrait photography.
Bokeh is very important for macro photography, since there is almost always shooting within the limits of the lens capabilities and very small MDF, the depth of field is also very small, which means that the bokeh intensity is very high.
Bokeh for portraiture Is a whole separate science. Basically, it all comes down to not focusing on the background, but highlighting only the person's portrait itself. Watch the artist. I recently saw how an artist paints my portrait, he painted only my face and shoulders on his canvas, not paying attention to the external environment at all. But I was sitting against the background of the variegated vegetation of the park. As a result, only my shoulder portrait without any unnecessary details turned out on the canvas. The artist only slightly shaded the pencil on a white sheet to add volume. Actually, with the help of the “correct” bokeh, photographers try to select only the person himself, and “shade, turn into porridge, jelly” all unnecessary ones. Below is a portrait in which the bokeh has a bright Hollywood style, and focuses part of the viewer's attention precisely on the colorful contrasting background of round circles. At the same time, the contrasting unsharp discs add their own flavor to the picture.
Personal experience
Often, when viewing photos, for example, on http://500px.com/, you can see only the operation of the lens itself, the bokeh of the lens, but by no means the work of the photographer. High-quality optics with “inimitable” bokeh can greatly relax the photographer and he will start to shoot any little thing with a beautiful blurred background and get “masterpieces”. Sometimes I myself suffer from this ailment, since I have to shoot sample photos for reviews on Radozhiv, and therefore, out of habit, I start shooting in a similar close up style at weddings, photo shoots, etc.
What is the right bokeh?
There is no “correct bokeh”. Everyone has their own tastes. Someone likes the twisted bokeh of Biotars, someone likes the classic bokeh from 80-200 telephoto cameras. But, if we are to get out of life, then the bokeh should be the same as the human eye sees. I have spent experiment, on the pier by the sea, I looked at the night city. The whole city was on fire. I raised my index finger in front of me and focused on it. I caught a glimpse of the discs of blur from the city in the distance. The fact that I saw shocked me, I saw kruglyashki, but they were all in some kind of torn stripes, dents. Something like bokeh "eyes" in the picture below:
Of course, many will not like this picture (as above). If we take “natural bokeh“Then I like the tree shadow pattern on the grass. It's not exactly bokeh, but something very similar and natural. The disks of unsharpness have a smooth tonal transition (border). Here's what I'm talking about:
Bokeh can be easily implemented programmatically. There is a million and one more plug-in for processing programs for this. But, Radozhiva does not specialize in articles about software.
Chasing bokeh
Many people buy DSLRs for the sake of taking pictures with beautiful bokeh. Often all photography stops at photographing “rounds” and interest in photography fades away. I don't recommend chasing bokeh very much. Yes, bokeh should suit your taste, but it shouldn't be the main focus of your photo. I am very often guided by one rule: if you look at the photo only at bokeh, then the photo is unsuccessful... Boke is kind of the side of the coin that no one should see. I shoot quite a lot, and not a single client has asked me a question about bokeh, nor spoke out for its "beauty" or "creaminess". Praise is always expressed in words like “wow, how beautiful, unusual”. People (not photographers) look at the picture, at themselves in the picture, for them completely different values are more important, and bokeh remains only a method for the photographer, our little secret and a panacea.
Bokeh can be really dirty from dirty lens lenses, I have a separate article about this “dirt on the side".
Lenses and lenses again
It is customary to wage two main wars on the Internet - lens sharpness and lens bokeh (aka drawing). Consider that the lens pattern will very much depend on the scene that is washed out by this very lens... For bokeh, novice photographers often use fifty (prime lenses with a 50mm focal length). The fight for the best bokeh of fifty dollars is a whole epic. Speaking for myself, at first I liked the rough “not kosher” bokeh Nikon 50mm F1.8Dthen more even and smooth Nikon 50mm F1.2 AI-S MF.
Sample photos with pronounced bokeh effect
The bokeh effect is very easy to get when shooting at short focus distances. In this case, even with the simplest lenses, you can squeeze out a strong blur of the background. The bokeh effect is strongly manifested during macro photography. Below are my shots on different cameras with different lenses:
Conclusions:
Boke - An interesting feature when creating photographs related to the concept of depth of field. Anything that does not fall into the field of focus can be called 'bokeh'. It is very difficult to judge the quality of the bokeh, as it is strong subjective factor.
↓↓↓ Like the article and share the link in social networks ↓↓↓. Thanks for attention. Arkady Shapoval
Thank you for the article, it is very informative how for me this is the best article in Radozhiv
Oh really :)
On the question of fifty dollars - the photo was taken with Nikon 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor)))
Well, I specifically left EXIF.
And I liked the comment “the best article on Radozhiv” most of all :)
Arkady tried so hard, and here it is the best article, from the very beginning “lay under my feet” :)
In general, bokeh is a difficult thing. On this very serious texts have been written, which I will translate sooner or later. And this article is a lick for beginners and thanks for that, Arkady! The educational program for beginner photographers is very valuable in Runet.
Dmitry, Radozhiva - and ukrnet :) Although, lately people are breaking from Africa. Are you only translating?
Thanks, great article!
Not at all.
Simple and affordable. The most adequate site about photography and technology. Thanks. I am a regular reader.
It's my pleasure :)
Interesting. Thank!
I constantly read your articles with pleasure. Please us further.
It's my pleasure
Thank you, I am a photographer with a decent experience, I read your pack very carefully.
"People (not photographers) look at the picture, at themselves in the picture, for them completely different values are more important, and bokeh remains only a method for the photographer, our little secret and a panacea."
I was delighted, looking at the pictures (portraits on other photo sites) with a blurred background, I showed it to my wife, and she said that it wasn’t sharp, the background was smeared and the client wouldn’t appreciate such a thing ... There are even humorous rhymes about bokeh, saying that you are for a photographer ... here with aunt Masha everything is abrupt from a mobile phone, but yours is blurry ...
I had to give very unbalanced photos in color reproduction, and the client really liked the photos. And giving the client with a very accurate color rendering, the client was not satisfied, because he did not like the way he looked. I gave the client a very well-mounted video where the music corresponded to the frame and other subtleties, watched how they reacted to my efforts and where I admired they laughed, not listening to a word of music, for they saw a godmother reaching for the aspic. That is, if you focus on the client with his tastes, then you can lose qualifications. Rare customer is picky, 1 out of 10.
Thank you for the article.
The easiest way to watch the customer's reaction is when they look at your portfolio. You know for sure that everything has been “crawled out” to a good level, no unnecessary details, and the client finds a lot of “his own opinion”.
How clearly noticed! When I showed my mother examples of photographs from SLR cameras before replacing the soap dish with a DSLR, she said: “Why do you need such an expensive one, you have a good camera, it can take no worse pictures, but here you can't even see the background”.
I believe that a photographer, like an artist, should “paint” the way he likes. after all, if you yourself do not like the result, you will not get satisfaction from the work. Well, let the client wait for pictures like from a soap dish - sharp, or photoshopped to zero like those of “professionals”. we will give him only what we like. Picaso would not be Picaso if he was forced to paint in the “right” style. it is necessary that not you look for clients, but clients look for you. you can't please everyone. and if you are a real Photographer, you will not ...
Totally agree with you. I wrote about customers for those people who think that their bokeh from 85 1.2 will be admired.
Arkady, please tell me
Does it make sense to buy a Nikon 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S lens for the Nikon D3200 for the purpose of photographing landscapes?
Or all the same, opt for the Nikon AF-S 35mm f / 1.8G DX?
Thank you for the article, bokeh is also interesting to me)
There's a meaning. I like 50mm more for landscapes, it is completely devoid of distortion, but 35 has it. On the other hand, the 35 is quite comfortable on the Nikon D3200, while the 50mm is already “long”. Watch a review of poltininka https://radojuva.com.ua/2012/02/obzor-nikon-50-mm-f-1-8-g-af-s/ and 35tk https://radojuva.com.ua/2011/03/obzor-nikkor-af-s-35mm-f1-8-dx/ and make your choice.
Thank you for the article, very informative.
I have a Tair-300, a shank for Kiev-88. Can it be adapted for Nikon?
Thank you.
Yes you can. Find how to find in the Soviet lenses section.
Arkady good afternoon.
Tell me in which program it is better to process everything? I have a nikon5100 disk with it, but this program is probably difficult for me, and even in English. Any reviews on this issue?
Well, photoshop is by itself, but it’s easier ACDSee 8 is an old program, but if there’s nothing wrong with the photo, then you can process a large number of photos faster
Again, I don't do software reviews. And the recommendation from Deimos is very funny, Photoshop is a rather complicated program. ACDsee will be better.
thank you
Very informative article. Accessible material is presented, as in the previous ones. Thank you, Arkady, for the fact that you can learn a lot from this wonderful site.
It's my pleasure:)
Thank you! Great article !!!
Great article, thanks!
At one time, being the owner of an ordinary soap dish, I wanted so much to get closer to this most beautiful bokeh, that from the “grief” I had to learn decent photo post-processing along the way and not only to create bokeh, but also for many other useful things. But “artificial” bokeh is always noticeable, you need to be very moderate and careful with it. And you are absolutely right that an interesting photo can be taken even in its absence. You start looking for plots, camera angles, take a non-standard approach to composition, color, and you realize that it also works.
Hello Arkady.
No words, just thanks! - many thanks!
for your work, and for being so ...
not at all : )
Thank you for the article!
Arkady, how can you distinguish "twisted" bokeh from "untwisted"? Where to look at the photos?
Here is an example of a twisted https://radojuva.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/helios-77m-4-obzor-5.jpg - it feels like someone took the background and twisted it. Unsharp discs are focused on creating a circular line.
And I bought a DSLR mainly because of the ability to make these same bokeh, well, I really like this effect. Good article!
I myself, really like this effect, and that’s it.
Arkady, hello! Sorry if I'm asking the question in the wrong thread. I don't have a photo with bokeh, I shoot with Zenit-11, Helios 44M-4 MS lens, Kodak-color200, I act as indicated in the article, but the photos are still sharp. Perhaps shooting on film should be done differently? I would be grateful if you would give some advice or share a link on how to shoot on film. PS Thank you for the accessible and interesting articles!
Well, photos with bokeh are also sharp, only on them some of the objects should be sharp, and some should not. For a strong blur effect, use the following thoughts - https://radojuva.com.ua/2012/01/dof-best-lens-photo/
Thanks for the article, I would very clearly and understandably want to know which focal point is for you and which aperture is most in demand in everyday life for the “soul”))
For the soul 50-200
Thank you for your work and thank you for spending your time on us.
I can not tear myself away from your site. Good luck to you!
Do not forget about helping the project.
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