Bokeh with f/3.5

[padaek]

There is really no such thing as more or less bokeh. Bokeh is the 'quality' of the lens blur and is a very subjective element of the image.


Bokeh depends on the lens and the lighting. Some lenses produce wonderful bokeh, the 135L for example, some lenses don't. Still it's all in the eyes of the beholder.

 

[lelavadee]

When you want to create "bokeh balls", like those seen in this photo you linked to https://www.flickr.com/photos/nirrimi/2770998246/ the need is for point light sources, seen against a dark field. So...in this image, what is happening is that the model in in an area of open shade, lighted by "sky-light" and not sun-light. The sun is BEHIND the subject, and is shining in in very small patches and bits, through fairly dense foliage and trees, which allows very small pin-points of light to be seen, out of focus, as what I and many otherc call "bokeh balls".

Tall hedges, like photinia, allow light to come through, and when seen against a predominantly dark background behind a person, create bokeh balls.

Here is a photo I took about seven years ago. You can see light, coming in through a photinia hedge about six feet behind the bird. The photo was shot with a 300mm lens + a 1.4x converter, so it's a 420mm effective focal length with an aperture of f/4.0, and the lens is wide-open, so the bokeh balls are round. As you can see, where there is NO SUNLIGHT coming through, the bokeh is just smooth, way out of focus blur..but where the sun is peeking through, there are "bokeh balls".

I was wondering how many posts it was going to take before someone realized the OP was looking to generate out of focus specular highlights.

Yeah...I figured that's what the OP was trying to achieve, especially given the specific sample linked to. In common "internet language", out of focus specular highlights have become known as "bokeh" among many people. The definitions of bokeh are somewhat varied...proper, improper, the definitions are what they are, and no matter how vociferously and adamantly some people try to "correct" others, the use of the term "bokeh" in reference to out of focus specular highlights rendered as blurry shapes is a definition that simply will not go away.

This explanation and all the examples help me a lot!
I will definitely try playing around with light. And to be honest, i just used the word "bokeh" because they use that word on some online art communities. I had no idea that it actually meant something else.
Thanks everyone!!

 

[ph0enix]

Hi, thank you thank you!
I think my explanation wasn't right.
I want to get bokeh, but not the blurry type.

Funny thing you said that since the word "bokeh" means "blur" in Japanese so essentially you want blur that's not blurry

 

[glun]

As mentioned before there is no such thing as more bokeh, it really depend on the lens and it is subjective in everyone's eyes.

There are ways to get better bokeh if you control your zoom lens probably. But depends on lighting and the person behind the camera it's really hard to say.

 

[Designer]

BTW: in case you're still here, the example you linked to was not a good example of really smooth blur (bokeh). To me, it looks way too "jittery" and therefore is not actually "bokeh".