Bokeh Thoughts about bokeh.

This article is very full subjective opinions. Be patient and understanding.

Bokeh Thoughts from Radozhiva

Bokeh Thoughts from Radozhiva

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.

Bokeh It is like that.

Bokeh It is like that. My watch for photo tests.

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).

Bokeh Example.

Bokeh. Example. Notice the “papery” crumpled pattern in the upper left corner.

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.

Depth of field

Depth of field. DOF. DOF.

The following parameters are responsible for the intensity (strength) of the blur (bokeh):

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
Creamy soft bokeh

Creamy soft bokeh

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 disc is in a blur zone. 200mm, F4.5. Not a crop.

The disc is in a blur zone. 200mm, F4.5. Not a crop.

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.

Nuts in the bokeh

Nuts in the bokeh. 7 angles.

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 with discs (circles) in the blur zone

Bokeh with discs (circles) in the blur zone

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.

An example of ordinary Hollywood bokeh

An example of ordinary Hollywood bokeh. Shot on Nikon 50mm F1.8D AF.

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.

Cream bokeh example.

Cream bokeh example.

In its pure form, creamy bokeh is very difficult to meet, mainly all photos with pronounced bokeh have a Hollywood or mixed style.

Bokeh without treatment with MDF. Weak guess at what fifty dollars filmed?

Bokeh without treatment with MDF. Weak guess at what fifty dollars filmed?

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.

The effect of bokeh on the overall picture. Bokeh turns hands into hands in a cast.

The effect of bokeh on the overall picture. Bokeh turns hands into hands in a cast.

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.

Portrait with pronounced blur of the background. Shot on a Nikon D700 and Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm 1: 1.8 lens

Portrait with pronounced blur of the background. Shot on Nikon D700 and lens Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm 1: 1.8

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.

An example of an unusual pleasant bokeh, shot on a Canon EOS 350D and the Soviet lens Jupiter-8

An example of an unusual pleasant bokeh, shot on Canon EOS 350D and soviet lens Jupiter 8

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:

The likeness of human bokeh

Semblance of "human" bokeh. Bokeh of a human eye.

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:

The play of the sun through the foliage of trees makes such a pattern on the earth

The play of the sun through the foliage of trees makes such a pattern on the earth. Something like Hollywood bokeh from nature.

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".

Bokeh with a fast fifty

Bokeh with a fast fifty

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.

Who drew attention to the bokeh?

Who drew attention to the bokeh?

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

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Comments: 175, on the topic: Bokeh. Thoughts about bokeh.

  • Volodimir

    Hello Arkady, I’ll ask a seemingly stupid question, one of your pictures shows the bokeh in which there are peculiar lines in the disk, I would like to know what kind of interesting effect it is? Thanks.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      This is the effect of a poorly sanded rear lens.

      • Volodimir

        Understood thanks)

  • Valeria

    What lenses can achieve swirling bokeh? I have nikon d5100. just picking up a new lens)

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Helios and Biotars, for D5100 the easiest is Helios-81N

  • Eugene

    Arkady, good afternoon! But what’s the name for this bokeh? http://www.flickr.com/photos/86956792@N06/10244281043/
    Usually for this lens it is quite creamy, apparently the background played here. nuts, not nuts ...

  • Nicholas

    Arkady! Thank you for the very useful information. I shoot a lot of macro and not when I didn’t think about which bokeh wakes me in the photo. Although I have colleagues who are ready to pay for good bokeh. I, like I shot a portrait of a girl by the window of Gelis 40. I showed the photo comrade, he saw a sell lens. I then realized. that he really liked the side. I shot a portrait in the country with a lens from the I61 FED. Because the working length of the other infinity is not DOF small. This allowed me to blur the background with the diaphragm. Hops grew in the background. It turned into a karakul with an interesting side. When I shoot a macro I'm more interested in depth of field. Than side. After your article I’m not without interest in BOKE. We will improve our photos due to BOKE. Thank you.

  • Igor

    Please tell me, is it possible to achieve bokeh only on the mirrors, or on a compact with sensible optics (Culpix P7700) is this also possible?

    • Do_Oraemon

      Quite. You just need to remember about the zoom position. At values ​​of 18 - 35 mm. there will be no bokeh at all. Shoot on TV and you will be happy.

  • Sergei

    Hello!
    Please tell me which camera to choose? Preferably with a high zoom and RAW support.
    Waiting for a response to the email address.
    svsergiy1971@gmail.com

  • anonym

    Hello! Which lens is suitable for creating a "twisted" bokeh for Nikon D3100?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      For example, MS Helios-81N

      • Andrei

        Arkady, thanks for the wonderful reviews! Please tell me what you can choose from more or less affordable lenses with a small depth of field? Nikon D300s camera. I use Nikkor 16-85 VR, I want more in terms of highlighting the subject from the background and good blurring ... However, it is desirable that the lens be more or less versatile and not particularly expensive, cheap and cheerful)) There is no way to test somewhere, so I ask for help!
        I will be grateful!

      • Julia

        Hello! Tell me please! I also want to buy a lens, a cat. will give a swirling effect. Which Nikon D7000 is needed?

  • Lena

    Arkady, please tell the newcomer. I decided to buy a lens for portraits and can not choose between helios81n and Jupiter37a? Can you help me?

    • anonym

      I recommend Jupiter 37A.
      Fairly sharp at full aperture and very creamy, fluid bokeh.
      It is better to take with a quality mark (still Soviet).
      And if you find a variant of MS (with multi-coating), then consider that you are incredibly lucky.
      Good luck and good shots!

    • Oleg

      Buy one and one. They are completely different both in focal lengths and in pattern. I have both, and each is good in its own way!

  • Valentin Kalenichenko

    For a long time I could not get my head around Arkady's favorite term "swirling boke". In almost all reviews of lenses, he notes one or another degree and nature of the "curl" of the zone of confusion. This phenomenon is caused by the mutual superposition of two lens aberrations (their “play”) - coma and astigmatism: the better both are corrected, the more “creamy” (respectively, less “Hollywood”) the boke will be. For example, the Biometar - Pentacon Sixx staff with an ideal picture in the sharpness zone has absolutely monstrous bokeh (I would say “super-Hollywood”). A certain role in this is played by the degree of difference between the iris diaphragm opening from the circle (“nuts” and “stars”). Mirror-lens lenses (“rings”) have their own specificity of boke.

  • Alexandra

    What is the reason for the bokeh with "holes"? I have a Nikon D5100 camera and a Helios 44-2 lens.

  • Elena

    Arkady, good evening! Very interesting and informative article! Tell me, please, which lens to buy for portrait shooting with a Sony DSLR-A200? I would be grateful

  • Andrei

    Arkady hello. Tell me please, (https://vk.com/vitaliypestov?z=photo10006753_329399859%2Fphotos10006753) on this photo bokeh is drawn by the lens? If not difficult to describe how you can achieve this result? Thanks in advance =).

  • Anatoly

    Chic article.
    Many thanks to the author

  • Alice

    Good day! Thank you very much for the article! Resolve the question. I have canon 1100, and for portraits I use helios 44, I wanted something new, I really like helios 40, drawing, bokeh. Does it make sense to buy it? Or maybe see something else? All at a loss. Which is more suitable?

  • Elena

    Tell me, please, but how was such a bokeh full of holes inside made?

  • Alain

    On Nikon 5100 f below 3.5 does not fall, how so?

    • Lynx

      can you change the objective to which "falls" below 3,5? well, for the sake of meaning, for example.

    • Robot1524

      Structurally, the lens 18-55 is as open as possible. open 3,5 (see marking 18-55 / 3,5-5,6). I advise 35 / 1,8 or 50 / 1,8.

  • anonym

    The likeness of the "human" bokeh. Bokeh of human ha (!!!) manhole

  • anonym

    Please correct the name of your 16 attached Picture :)

  • Franchuk

    I really like the right, “creamy” bokeh, the photo is somehow clean and airy, and the mugs only litter the photo
    (photo taken from 500px website)

    • anonym

      and even in this photo the bokeh is not purely creamy, in some places there are mugs ... :)

      • anonym

        yes, I agree + there is still processing

    • vasya pupkin

      This is a photo of Lisa Holloway - she's taking a photo with a Canon EF 200m f / 2L for $ 6k. That is why bokeh is remarkable and strong contrast sharpness-unsharp ... Professional scientists shoot deep space with the same glass for its unique parameters ...

  • Roma

    It would be more interesting if all the photos below were signed (that is, with what lens) ... Some bokeh are very unusual, and I would like to know what kind of lens gives such a picture ..

  • Denis

    Hello Arkady. Many people write that they want a round bokeh without the so-called "nuts". But the diaphragm may not always be fully open. Question: What if you cut a round hole in the paper and cover the front lens. That is, not a curly bokeh, but a round one with a slightly closed aperture.

    • Yarkiya

      What prevents you from checking this yourself?

  • Michail

    Thank you for the article!

  • Andrei

    Tell me on which lens the bokeh will be more blurry AF-S NIKKOR 55 - 200 mm 1: 4,5 - 5,6 VR, or nikon 50mm f / 1.8

    • Lynx

      blurred - on the faulty one.
      and blurry - depends on the focal point .. if the zoom is from 50 to 80 mm approximately, then the priority is for half, if others - then google “depth of field calculator” and see everything at least in millimeter steps.

  • Natalia

    Please tell me which lens is suitable for bokeh at 67 mm Nikon d7100

    • anonym

      Is 67mm a focal length or are you choosing a lens for a light filter?

    • anonym

      Apparently, you are looking for a bokesh light filter. google “Magic Bokeh Kit”

  • Oleg

    Arkady, you write excellent informative articles, put your work into them. When you are thanked for the work done, you should not say “nothing for that” ... There is a reason! I understand that this is a kind of modestly polite answer, but honestly, it is better to say “please”, or something else. In no case do I teach you life, just such a little piece of advice, and excuse me for not being at all on the topic of the article =).
    Best wishes, and success to you!

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