Bokeh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coarse bokeh on a photo shot with an 85mm lens and 70mm aperture, which corresponds to f/1.2

In photography, bokeh (Japanese pronunciation: [boke][1][2]) is the blur,[3][2] or the aesthetic quality of the
blur,[4][5][6] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of
light."[7] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the
image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or
distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively.[3] Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie
outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to
create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and
light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas.[3]However, bokeh is not limited to
highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Origin

• 2 Description

• 3 Emulation

• 4 See also

• 5 References

• 6 External links

[edit]Origin
An example of the bokeh produced by the Canon 85mm prime f/1.8 lens. The polygonal shapes are due to the
8-bladed aperture diaphragm being slightly closed. At its full aperture (f/1.8) these shapes would be smooth
and not polygonal.

200mm lens with a 100mm aperture, which corresponds to f/2

The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means "blur" or "haze",
or boke-aji (ボケ味), the "blur quality". The Japanese term boke is also used in the sense of a
mental haze or senility.[8]

The English spelling bokeh was popularized in 1997 in Photo Techniques magazine, when Mike
Johnston, the editor at the time, commissioned three papers on the topic for the March/April 1997
issue; he altered the spelling to suggest the correct pronunciation to English speakers, saying "it is
properly pronounced with bo as in bone and ke as in Kenneth, with equal stress on either syllable".
[2]
The spellings bokeh and boke have both been in use at least since 1996, when Merklinger had
suggested "or Bokeh if you prefer."[9] The term bokeh has appeared in photography books at least
since 1998.[4] It is sometimes pronounced /ˈboʊkə/ (boke-uh).[10]

[edit]Description
An extremely shallow depth of field, a common effect of macro lenses, emphasizes bokeh

The depth of field is the region where the size of the circle of confusion is less than the resolution of the
human eye.

Although difficult to quantify, some lenses enhance overall image quality by producing more
subjectively pleasing out-of-focus areas. Good bokeh is especially important for large-
aperture lenses, macro lenses, and long telephoto lenses because they are typically used with a
shallow depth of field. Bokeh is also important for medium telephoto "portrait lenses" (typically 85–
150 mm on 35 mm format) because in portraiture photography, the photographer typically seeks to
obtain a shallow depth of field to achieve an out-of-focus background and make the subject stand
out.

The bokeh produced by a catadioptric lens (also called a mirror lens).

Bokeh characteristics may be quantified by examining the image's circle of confusion. In out-of-
focus areas, each point of light becomes an image of the aperture, generally a more or less round
disc. Depending how a lens is corrected for spherical aberration, the disc may be uniformly
illuminated, brighter near the edge, or brighter near the center. Lenses that are poorly corrected for
spherical aberration will show one kind of disc for out-of-focus points in front of the plane of focus,
and a different kind for points behind. This may actually be desirable, as blur circles that are
dimmer near the edges produce less-defined shapes which blend smoothly with the surrounding
image. Lens manufacturers including Nikon and Canon make lenses designed with specific
controls to change the rendering of the out-of-focus areas.

Catadioptric lens bokeh seen in more detail.

The shape of the aperture has a great influence on the subjective quality of bokeh. For
conventional lens designs (with bladed apertures), when a lens is stopped down smaller than its
maximum aperture size (minimum f-number), out-of-focus points are blurred into
the polygonal shape formed by the aperture blades. This is most apparent when a lens produces
hard-edged bokeh. For this reason, some lenses have many aperture blades and/or blades with
curved edges to make the aperture more closely approximate a circle rather than a polygon.
Traditional "Portrait" lenses, such as the "fast" 85mm focal length models for 35mm cameras often
feature almost-circular aperture diaphragms, as is the case with Canon's EF 85mm f/1.2L II
lens and Nikon's 85mm f/1.4D, and are generally considered exceptional performers. In contrast,
acatadioptric telephoto lens renders bokehs resembling doughnuts, because its secondary
mirror blocks the central part of the aperture opening. Recently, photographers have exploited the
shape of the bokeh by creating a simple mask out of card with shapes such as hearts or stars, that
the photographer wishes the bokeh to be, and placing it over the lens.[11]

Leica lenses, especially vintage ones, are often claimed to excel in bokeh quality, although Leica
photographers have tended to make more use of maximum aperture due to the lenses' ability to
maintain good sharpness at wide openings and the suitability of the Leica camera system for
available-light theatre work and reportage. More evidence is needed to determine whether Leica's
lens designers deliberately set out to produce pleasing bokeh.
Minolta/Sony STF 135mm f/2.8 [T4.5]* (STF standing for Smooth Transition Focus) is a lens which
is specifically designed to produce pleasing bokeh. An apodization filter is used to soften the
aperture edges which results in a smooth defocused area with gradually fading circles. Those
qualities make it the only lens of this kind currently on the market.

No bokeh

Faux (synthetic) bokeh

Recently, a research group at MIT Media Lab showed that the bokeh effect can be used to make
imperceptibly small barcodes, or bokodes. By using markers as small as 3mm with a small lens
over them, if the marker is viewed out of focus through an ordinary camera focused at infinity, the
resulting image is large enough to scan the information in the barcode.[12]

[edit]Emulation

Bokeh can be simulated by convolving the image with a kernel that corresponds to the image of an
out-of-focus point source taken with a real camera. Unlike conventional convolution, this
convolution has a kernel that depends on the distance of each image point and – at least in
principle – has to include image points that are occluded by objects in the foreground.[13] Also,
bokeh is not just any blur. To a first approximation, defocus blur is convolution by a uniform disk, a
more computationally-intensive operation than the "standard" Gaussian blur; the prior produces
sharp circles around highlights whereas the latter is a much softer effect. Diffraction may alter the
effective shape of the blur. Some graphics editors have a filter to do this, usually called "Lens
Blur."[14]

An alternative mechanical mechanism has been proposed for generating bokeh in small aperture
cameras such as compacts or cellphone cameras, called image destabilisation,[15][16] in which both
the lens and sensor are moved in order to maintain focus at one focal plane, while defocusing
nearby ones. This effect currently generates blur in only one axis.

[edit]See also

 Aberration in optical systems

 Airy disk

 Circle of confusion

 Kim Kirkpatrick, a photographer known for his creative use of bokeh

 Soft focus

 Special effect

[edit]References

1. ^ There is no standardized English pronunciation. The Japanese pronunciation may

be approximated as /ˌboʊˈkɛ/ BOH-KEH or /ˌbɒˈkɛ/BOK-EH, but it is commonly anglicized as /

ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay, /ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə, /ˈbɒkeɪ/ BOK-ay, or /ˈbɒkə/ BOK-ə. Japanese 暈け

boke means 'blur'.

2. ^ a b c Johnston, Mike (April 4, 2004). "The Sunday Morning Photographer, 2004:

Bokeh in Pictures". The Luminous Landscape. Retrieved July 3, 2009.

3. ^ a b c Harold Davis (2008). Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital

Photographers. O'Reilly Media. p. 62. ISBN 9780596529888.

4. ^ a b Gerry Kopelow (1998). How to photograph buildings and interiors (2nd ed.).

Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 118–119. ISBN 9781568980973.

5. ^ Roger Hicks and Christopher Nisperos (2000). Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots

and How to Take Them. Amphoto Books. p. 132.ISBN 9780817440206.

6. ^ Tom Ang (2002). Dictionary of Photography and Digital Imaging: The Essential

Reference for the Modern Photographer. Watson–Guptill.ISBN 0817437894.

7. ^ "PhotoWords/Lens". PhotoGuide Japan.

8. ^ John W. Traphagan (2000). Taming oblivion: aging bodies and the fear of senility in

Japan. SUNY Press. p. 134. ISBN 9780791444993.

9. ^ Merklinger, Harold. "Understanding Boke". The Luminous Landscape. Retrieved

July 3, 2009.
 10. ^ Wes McDermott (2009). Real World Modo: The Authorized Guide: In the Trenches

with Modo. Focal Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780240811994.

11. ^ Karsten Stroemvig. "DIY — Create your own Bokeh".

12. ^ Mohan, A., Woo, G, Hiura, S, Smithwick, Q, Raskar, R. Bokode: Imperceptible

Visual Tags for Camera Based Interaction from a Distance. ACM SIGGRAPH 2009.

13. ^ Potmesil, M.; Chakravarty, I. (1982), Synthetic Image Generation with a Lens and

Aperture Camera Model, ACM Transactions on Graphics, 1, ACM, pp. 85–

108, doi:10.1145/357299.357300, ISSN 0730-0301

14. ^ Adobe Photoshop CS3 Livedocs. "Add lens blur".

15. ^ Jim Giles, for New Scientist magazine (Subscription required). "Next-generation

cameras bring photography tricks to the masses".

16. ^ Ankit Mohan and Douglas Lanman and Shinsaku Hiura and Ramesh

Raskar. "Image Destabilization: Programmable Defocus using Lens and Sensor Motion".

[edit]External links

Look
up bokeh in Wiktionary, the
free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has

media related to: Bokeh

 Aperture Simulator Java iris and effect simulator

 How to evaluate bokeh

 Understanding Bokeh