CameraCrazy

Your subject is only part of a photograph. A good photograph considers the whole picture.

I’m not sure how many of you have heard the term “Bokeh”. You all know what it is and perhaps even considered it when examining your pictures. The term Bokeh put simply is all the stuff in a photograph that is not your subject. More specifically it describes the background blur in a photo and how pleasing it looks. If you have good bokeh, then your photos will generally have a nice quality soft background that usually contrasts well with your subject. The goal of having good bokeh is to make your subject ‘pop’ out from the picture (i.e. no distractions taking away from the subject). This is typically done by not having a cluttered background.

Is bokeh important? YES! Think about this or do a little exercise, start looking through your photos and dividing them up into percentages. A certain percentage is of your 4×6 or 8×10 picture is dedicated to the subject and a certain percentage is dedicated to the background. Take a look at the photo at the start of this post, the subject is the lily, it is roughly 40 to 50% of the photo which means that roughly 50-60% of the photo is the background. That’s a lot of space in a photo that is not what you’re interested in and since it is a large area can have a major impact on the aesthetics of your photograph. Take a look at some photos that do not have a good bokeh. In the Morel mushroom picture, I like the mushrooms, however the background looks a little cluttered and distracts from the main subject. My eye is drawn away from the subject.

What Influences Bokeh

Bokeh is influenced by a lot of things, from the lens design and the number of blades that make up a lens, right down to technique. For the purpose of this post I’m not going to focus much on the technical limitations of some lenses, honestly I believe a lot if not all of these technical limitations can be over come by good technique.

Probably the most obvious influence on bokeh is the aperture you use. Smaller apertures (larger f numbers, e.g. f22, f32 etc…) means more of the background will be in focus. Thus, to get softer bokeh, use a bigger aperture (f2.8, f4). Along the same lines as aperture another important influence with bokeh is the type of lens you use. Wide angle lenses keep more things in focus than telephoto lenses. If you have never tried this test, take a wide angle lens, find a subject and take a picture, then throw on a telephoto, move back so the subject is about the same size in the wide angle picture and take a picture. Your subject should look the same and be the same size, however the backgrounds will be dramatically different. The telephoto will not have nearly as much in focus.

NOW FOR THE BEST TIP IN GETTING GOOD BOKEH

So the reason I put this tip in uppercase is to really try and get the point across. The best way to get good bokeh is to pay attention. When you find a subject that excites you there seems to be this almost irresistible urge to setup and take the shot and as many shots as you can. In some situations this may be necessary (particularly with wildlife on the move), however, in a lot of photography we can afford to take the time and setup properly and examine the whole picture. Often we focus intensely on the subject, exploring it from every angle, but neglect the blurry background. Then later when you examine your pictures at home all you see is your subject and minor distractions in the background that take away from your subject. So next time you are out force yourself to look through the camera for at least a minute before taking a picture. In taking the extra time to examine the picture you will start to notice the backgrounds and can change position to achieve the best result.