How to Make Bokeh

The word Bokeh is derived from a Japanese word that means "blur" or "haze" and refers to the quality of the out of focus area of an image.  Different lenses have different quality of bokeh.  The most desirable look is that of a creamy out of focus area that helps set off your sharply focused subject.  

What you'll want, is your subject in crisp focus and everything else pleasantly blurred.  Three things to force a shallower depth of field are:

• Long focal length - a wide angle lens is not the solution here
• close focusing distance - the closer the better
• wide aperture - the wider the better (a lower ƒ-stop number like ƒ/1.4)

So, going close in, with a long lens, with the aperture set wide open is the way to maximize the shallowness of depth of field.  

A larger sensor (or film format) will allow you to create better bokeh.  Point & shoot cameras will not create as nice bokeh as say a medium format camera.  Also, the shape of the aperture (the opening) has an impact on the image quality.  Some lenses have a higher number of curved aperture blades.  This design allows for a round or nearly round aperture as the lens stops down.  Fewer straight-edged blades create a polygonal aperture. This is most evident in a the shape of lens flare.

Comments

[Mike Cullen]

Cool--I never knew there was a name for this. Thanks!