Bokeh

Bokeh

by Anthony Rock for ©Panasonic Lumix

You have been happily crafting beautiful images using your equipment with a balance of both growing skill and talent until the word "Bokeh" surfaced and gained more and more popularity in the world of photography.

Bokeh, Bowkah or Bowkay? Whether it was overheard during a conversation with another photographer or during an instructive how-to session video, this often French-sounding word is mostly mispronounced and comes from the Japanese word for "haze" or "blur". It became popular in 1997 with the spelling being changed to "Boke(h)" from "Boke" to reflect the pronunciation which should sound like "po" from "(po)cket" and "ke" as in the beginning of "(ke)ttle".

Bokeh is a great word however you decide to say it. It has a meaning that reflects perhaps one of the most important goals in your photography. As "great Bokeh" descriptively is a measure of the quality in out of focus image areas, it is one of the most powerful visual guides at your disposal that can strengthen and create great impact in the composition on your images.

The strength of Bokeh is achieved by changing the aperture of the lens on your camera. The glowing spots and forms you see that make up the most dramatic Bokeh are lights and highlights along with the other diffused parts of your image background. The quality and shapes of your images out of focus transition areas are determined by the shape of the shutter blades in the lens. Rounded or multiple blades will create smoother and cleaner rendered defocused shapes. Hexagonal and other forms are created when there are straighter and or fewer blades making up the shutter mechanism in a lens.

The framing of your subject and closest focus distance are both quite significant when you are determined to achieve pleasing Bokeh. As you are not able modify a particular field of view beyond changing the crop factor of the sensor or zooming to change to another focal length, you will quickly notice that moving toward or away from your subject to reframe a composition will change the way that the Bokeh is rendered.

A lens at F2 focused on an eye but framing the subjects face will have maximum background diffusion. This is because it is likely to be nearer to the closest focus distance for the lens. In this case the back ground will appear to almost be completely unrecognisable. You must consider this when you are thinking of locations to photograph as if you are going to shoot “wide open” and relatively close up, you will realise quite quickly when reviewing your images that you could be absolutely anywhere. The shapes and forms around the subject would be so diffused that they could be anything and anywhere. In order to make the most out of your locations, you can stop down to F5.6 or even F8 for example and retain some scene detail in your composition while you will still render a beautiful frame before and after your focus point.

If you would like to add perspective use a wider lens such as 24mm. You can add scale and punch to an otherwise acceptably beautiful landscape, you can experiment with objects and items that are very close to the camera or just entering the frame. Use anything from a flower or outcropping of rock. These are items that many photographers would usually omit and attempt to compose out of their images. These items will give the viewer an idea of scale without distracting them. You can also use these elements to help lead the eye around a frame. Photographing details on cars close up can benefit from the use of creative framing and positioning. You can use your ability to control the blooms in your Bokeh to produce beautiful compositional aids that can help to balance a frame.

Using a 50mm prime lens such as the LUMIX S Pro 50mm 1.4 would give you the ability to capture a larger environmental portrait or scene, separating the subject and rendering a creamy background while still achieving a sharp subject that will virtually pop in the frame. If you experiment with shooting closer to wide open with this lens (towards 1.4), you will notice that any contrasting elements in the scene will render the most noticeable forms. If you have lights and highlights beyond your subject in an out of focus area, you will see those elements take on the shape that the aperture blades create. This is very effective for any detail that may be in your composition. You can watch the diminished effect by stopping down to see those details come more into focus. The balance of completely diffusing a back ground and lightly rendering the most pleasing forms is up to you as ultimately this is a piece art which you are creating. A quick tip for indoor studio photography where you want to have light blooms like you would get from outdoor photography. You can achieve this effect by creatively placing small LED lights such as Christmas type lights beyond your subject and experiment with focus to change the size of your forms.

There are countless benefits of utilizing great Bokeh. Instead of simply having tight framing of your subject in an image, you can choose to completely diffuse everything both before and after the plane of focus. This technique is often used in film when you see two people talking to gently guide the eye to which ever character is most important and intended to hold your attention. You will also see this technique used in many portrait photographs in order to frame and help with clarity in the image.

A longer or medium telephoto like the LUMIX S Pro 70-200 will help you to frame your subject without having an otherwise distracting background. Shooting with the longer lens will have a separating effect as the narrow angle of view will appear to reduce background information beyond your subject. Use this when you want to isolate your subject. Keep in mind that the longer lens will appear to amplify the affect of shooting wide open with the same framing of your wider lenses. Experiment with framing your subjects with different focal lengths using the same aperture to see how it changes the Bokeh in your images. Also you will see the way this changes the amount of information in the out of focus areas that make up your Bokeh.

To consistently create and control the effect there are a few factors to consider. When creating a composition such as a portrait, you will choose how tightly you wish to stage the subject. You can sculpt the diffused forms that make up the Bokeh by using the differing field of view characteristics of either a wider or longer lens.

Having clear-focus and separation in an image is a great way to maintain your viewer's attention and guide the eye to what is most important in the story that you are telling in your images and films. Take control of your Bokeh using our LUMIX lens series.

Author Anthony Rock for ©Panasonic Lumix