Frets

Frets, originally uploaded by Suarez.

Photograph ©2010 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved.

Guitar playing during the holidays.

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.

Camarones Tropisueño

Camarones Tropisueño, originally uploaded by Suarez.

Photograph ©2009 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved.

Camarones Tropisueño at Tropisueño in San Francisco, California. These shrimp tasted as good as they looked. Wow. I went there twice. Once with my coworker Althea who found this marvelous restaurant and then again with my high school friend and college roommate James.

Pellegrino

Pellegrino, originally uploaded by Suarez.

Photograph ©2009 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved.

Shot at the dinner table Monday night. We had some Limoncello that a friend made and we were mixing it with "fizzy water."

Seared Tuna

Seared Tuna, originally uploaded by Suarez.

Photograph ©2009 Alex Suárez. All rights reserved.

This is a shot of the seared tuna, my favorite thing to order at WeFuse, a restaurant at the base of the Frost Tower.

I currently have a photography exhibit at WeFuse. It was supposed to end last weekend, but, due to its popularity, it has been extended.

Also, if you're in Austin Thursday night, come by the CapMac Advanced Photography SIG. Glamour and pinup photographer Mark Daughn will be speaking on "posing the model." More info here. Hope to see you there!