[Foxesbrew]

Bokeh my interpretation.Comments welcomed

[Boofers]

very soft Foxesbrew,
this is what I have always thought it meant, different levels of softness depending on the picture subject.

[chickadee]

from researching the subject ,totally agree as from what i have read , Brokeh is not about a aharp focal point from what i have read brokeh has no sharp edges.it is about soft edge of image or focal point leading into soft blur or out of focus areas of the overall picture.The main area of interest is the soft blur or out of focus area in bokeh, (not the in focus area )hope this makes sense ,but some great bokeh sites around as bokeh pics on flicker.

[Rob Barron]

Bokeh in itself is simply the Japanese word for 'blur' so when we talk about the quality of the bokeh of a lens, we are referring to the quality of the blurring that is achievable. Some cheaper lenses give a much coarser blurring than others of a higher quality and this is something many feel is worth paying for when looking at the best lenses.

The difference in 'in-camera' blurring (as opposed to blurring applied in post-processing) is partly due to the quality of the optics themselves and partly the number of 'leaves' that form the aperture and the shape of them. Some lenses have 5 or 6, straight-edged aperture leaves which overlap to make a smaller or larger pentagon/hexagon according to the aperture chosen. This means there is a sharp angle between each edge and thus the bokeh won't be as soft. Other lenses can have 8 leaves with each one having a curved edge so that at whatever aperture is chosen, the ring formed by the aperture leaves is a near-perfect circle. This means there are no sharp angles and allows for a much creamier blurring effect at wide apertures.

Going back to Foxes' picture here, I have a feeling the blurring is post-pro blurring so has been applied by the taker to get the dreamy effect we can see and which works very nicely. I could be wrong, this could be a wide aperture giving a very shallow depth of field but either way the effect is very pleasant and works well :o)

Cheers,
Rob