The more you open up your aperture (decrease your f-stop), the stronger the background blur becomes, the more bokeh appears. This is quite straightforward to anyone who’s learnt photography basics. So, you’ll get noticeably more background blur from an 85mm f/2 lens than a 50mm f/2 lens. This is because perspective compression forces the blur to spread out more. The longer your focal length is, the more bokeh will show up. Subject distance affects the relative size and amount of lens blur in your frame. But if your subject is too close to the background, there won’t be enough separation to let large bokeh balls form.
The closer your focus is to the camera, the more shallow depth of field becomes and more bokeh appears. The most important factor is the distance between the subject and the camera, as well as the distance between the subject and the background. So, let’s dive in and see them one by one. The quantity and quality of bokeh depend on many things, from lens design to your creative vision.
Not every camera and lens behaves the same when it comes to out-of-focus areas. Bokeh is more than that, it’s about visual quality above all. The size of bokeh balls is actually possible to precisely calculate – but nobody does that. It’s a visual element, and aesthetic factor – you can’t really measure or calculate its qualities. It’s a number, a measurement.īokeh, in turn, is the result of a shallow depth of field. Depth of field refers to the range in space that’s in acceptable focus. Well, the two are closely related to each other, but they’re not the same. You might rightfully ask: what’s the difference between bokeh and depth of field? This means that in the sensor’s plane, the projected image is not sharp, but out of focus.Īs all the individual out-of-focus points add up and blend together, you get bokeh. On the latter two figures, the plane of focus for our subject is before or behind the sensor.
On the first figure, the rays coming from the subject converge on the sensor, projecting a sharp image of the subject’s plane. Let’s take a look at this graphic to see how that works. You have to prioritise a plane as your area of focus. You know well that you can’t have everything in focus at the same time – your lens is not capable of that in practical circumstances. The following will be slightly technical, but I aim to make it easily digestible. To control and shape bokeh to your needs, you first need to understand how it’s made and what affects it. Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out of focus points of light”.īut what does that mean exactly? To understand bokeh photography, you need to understand depth of field, and how photography converts three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional mould. Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash Why Is It Called Bokeh?Īccording to Wikipedia, “bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out of focus parts of an image produced by a lens”. But you need to be conscious with it to consistently get awesome results. In short, bokeh is a fantastic visual element with many great attributes. If you use it well, your photo will stand out from afar and remain interesting when viewed close-up.
#Bokeh lens professional
It also helps to give your images an overall professional feel. They look particularly flattering in portraits. Bokeh BallsĪt night or in a dark environment, points of highlights can shine through the background, creating well-defined bokeh balls. Of course, it doesn’t replace a strong narrative. Especially in portraits, if you choose to be close to your subject and introduce a lot of bokeh, it can make the viewer resonate more with the photo.
You can create a misty, moody atmosphere in an image with bokeh. Thus, good bokeh contributes to a cleaner, more refined look. It will become a dollop of colour and tone, and not much else. If you blur your background into oblivion, crisp details will disappear from it. You Can Hide Unwanted Elements with Itīokeh can be used to hide distracting elements. This can make otherwise dull and uninteresting scenes come alive. You can frame up your subject with good bokeh, placing a large piece of blur to one or more sides. Or, oppositely, you might also choose to make it harmonise with its surroundings, and dress it in a different shade of green. So, in the case of a portrait in a green-dominant nature environment, you can choose to colour your subject in magenta to make it pop. It can also be used as a mass of color complementing or mimicking the colors on your subject. It helps to guide the viewer’s eye to your focal point and subject. An Excellent Compositional Toolīy throwing your background out of focus, you get a ton of negative space. We love bokeh for a multitude of reasons.