Breezes, blur & Bokeh

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury

Having just stumbled across Paul @ Photo Genius and his monthly challenges I was prompted to join in and go in search of some Bokeh on a country lane walk.

bokeh (/ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə or /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay; Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”.

It was mid afternoon and the sun was as splendid as only an Autumn light can be – the trouble was it was also a very breezy somewhat blustery afternoon

Tip 1 : use a wide aperture (I could only go to 4.5 on my zoom lens)
Tip 2: Bring the camera really close to the subject as this helps to throw the background of out focus
Tip 3: Zoom in or try a telephoto lens (no bokeh here but the puddles were stroked to impressionism by the winds)
Tip 4: Try manual focus (and zoom in and out of focus til you have the amount of blur or bokeh that you want)
Tip 5: If you have a prime lens use it (for wider aperture & clearer bokeh) I only had my kit zoom lens but it’s a poor workman that blames her tools!

Whenever you shoot with a lens wide open, check to make sure the subject is sharp. At wide apertures, just slight movement can throw the entire subject out of focus. 

creativelive.com

Your telling me, and here was I trying to shoot close up with wide aperture in stronger and stronger winds….but all good photographers go with the flow! I decided to capture natural blur instead by standing in a field of maize. No wonder art tries to imitate nature sometimes

And of course, Bokeh works well in monochrome without the distraction of colour!

To join this month’s theme the hashtag is #pgc14 for Instagram and Facebook

Introspectives:  thinking out loud with an aim to improve and learn more about photography. Hence the images are not always for show – feedback is welcome.

13 thoughts on “Breezes, blur & Bokeh”

      1. Some long telephoto lenses can produce some very ugly bokeh but the vast majority of people never notice because they’re only looking at the subject, not the background.

  5. Although you’re more drawn to monochrome, my personal favourites here are the golden leaf bokehs.

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