What Is Bokeh?

What is bokeh?

If you’re even slightly interested in photography, chances are you’ve come across the word bokeh. But what exactly is bokeh? And how do you create that nice bokeh effect in your photos? We’ll explain it here.

Bokeh

Bokeh is the effect of blurred areas in a photo. It is derived from the Japanese word boke, which literally means “blur.” In professional photography, bokeh is used to place more focus on the subject by blurring the background while keeping the subject sharp. You can create bokeh by using a wide aperture such as f/2.8 or larger.

Good bokeh, bad bokeh

Bokeh refers to the quality of the blur in the background of a photo. It usually appears in images with a blurred background, such as those often seen in portrait and macro photography. However, there are differences in quality. One blurred background can look better than another. Just take a look at the photos below.

In the photo on the left, you can clearly see that the photographer intended to focus on the flower in the center. The background is blurred, but not blurred enough to create a sense of calm in the image. As a result, the background distracts from the subject. That might be your intention, but in most cases, you achieve the best result with a clean background and good bokeh. In the photo of the raccoon, you can see the result of good bokeh. The raccoon is sharp while the background is heavily blurred, creating a calm image where your attention immediately goes to the raccoon.

The bokeh effect

Although bokeh refers to the quality of blur in the background of a photo, many people recognize it as an effect that creates nice round light orbs in your image: the bokeh effect. This can result in a slightly busier background, but it can work very well in certain photos. Just take a look at the examples below!

How to bokeh

But how do you actually create that effect? First of all, you need to use as wide an aperture as possible—at least f/2.8, but preferably even wider. An aperture of f/2, f/1.8, or f/1.4 is ideal. With a wide aperture, the light rays reflecting from the background hit the lens in a more scattered way, which creates a blurred image. The wider your aperture, the more blurred your background will be. The light rays reflecting from your focus point, however, hit the lens more directly, which is why you can still capture your subject sharply even with a wide aperture.

So, the size of your aperture is important when creating bokeh. However, the aperture blades themselves are also very important and can make the difference between beautiful and less appealing bokeh. Some aperture blades have a round opening, while others have a hexagonal shape. As you might guess: with a round opening, your bokeh appears round, and with a hexagonal opening, it appears hexagonal. In general, round bokeh is more highly valued than angular bokeh. The number of aperture blades also plays a role. For the most pleasing bokeh, it’s best to use a lens with 9 aperture blades, although 7 can also do the job. Additionally, rounded aperture blades create smoother bokeh than straight-edged blades. So keep this in mind when purchasing a lens if you want to create beautiful bokeh!

Distance is another important factor when creating bokeh. For the best results, you want as much distance as possible between your subject and the background. So experiment with the space between them to see what gives you the most pleasing result. Sometimes it also helps to move closer to your subject to achieve a shallower depth of field.

Creative with bokeh

The shape of bokeh can be influenced by the shape of your aperture blades. This also means you can experiment with your bokeh by creating different shapes. Online, there are many tutorials explaining how to make your own bokeh filter, which allows you to photograph hearts, flowers, Christmas trees, and much more as bokeh shapes.

It’s also fun to experiment with different light sources to create other types of bokeh. Christmas lights in various colors, city lights, or environments with many reflective objects are great examples. Get inspired by the photos below!