Is bokeh overrated?

Light Artisan · Jan 14, 2011

I see what you're saying now... thanks for explaining it better. What I was leading at is that if someone called it bokeh once (for a good out of focus area) and blur another (for a poor out of focus area). Bokeh isn't the quality in itself... it is what it is, out of focus.

Derrel · Jan 14, 2011

Here is a pretty good primer on the subject, but it only fills in one piece of the puzzle.Bokeh

Another article with some samples:
Bokeh sampler page

A page showing how physical vignetting of the light ray can cause unusual shaped specular highlights; this is usually called "cat's eye" bokeh. Some lenses, like the Sigma 30mm f/1.4, have this issue quite pronouncedly.
Swirly Bokeh Testing

Here is a free .PDF file with rankings of lenses according to their typical bokeh potential--written by *the guy* who introduced the word bokeh to the English-speaking world back in the late 1990's.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/files/bokehrankings5.pdf

One of the single biggest problems currently is that the term "bokeh" is being misused by millions of newbies, who think it refers exclusively to out of focus specular highlights in a photo background, usually from light sources like street lights, Christmas lights, candles, etc.

I just want to make one point about the subject by way of analogy: in America, there are millions upon millions of people who are perfectly happy with microwave cooked food out of a box. There is also a sub-set of the American population that likes gourmet cooking, and appreciates the flavors imparted by oven roasting, pan searing, broiling, poaching, and hand-tending to cooking food. One group dismisses chefs and culinary skill as pretentious crap, and nukes its dinners in cardboard boxes bought from Costco. The other group shops at high-end grocery and produce markets, and lavishes care on its food and its preparation.