[Part six of the Photography Fundamentals series, be sure to check out all 10 posts!]
Trust me, you’ll sound cooler when you walk around saying ‘bokeh” all the time.
I’ve referenced bokeh (pronounced “bouquet” with more of an “eh” than “ae” sound), aperture and depth of field several times already but I thought it deserved its own post, just because it’s awesome.
We’ve talked about how the amount of your image that is in focus is called the depth of field, and the out-of-focus part is what’s referred to as “bokeh”. I’ve heard it as both a noun and an adjective so take your pick.
A shallow DOF has the effect of drawing the viewers eye to what’s in focus. The artifacts or aberrations that a camera lens creates around out of focus objects is also very aesthetically pleasing to a lot of people. Using this effect immediately gives your images a leg up at looking professional.
However, on your consumer camera you may have a hard time achieving this effect. There are two things that can help you.
1. Starve Your Camera for Light
In order to achieve a shallow depth of field, your lens aperture has to be wide open. In it’s auto settings, your camera may slam your aperture shut to try to reduce the overall exposure.
Crank up your shutter speed, dim the lights, blot out the sun or use a neutral density filter to cut down on the light in your scene for your best chance at shooting shallow DOF.
2. Compress
As mentioned in our post about optics, the longer the focal length of your lens, the more compressed your image will be and the more of your image you can shift out of focus. Zoom in, move the camera further away from your subject, and move your subject further away from the background if need be.
Another option is to not worry about it.
Shooting with a shallow depth of field is almost becoming cliche especially in the video world. It used to be something that could only be accomplished by an expensive camera rig. Now, everyone’s doing it.
As Stu Maschwitz says about Bokeh fetishist Philip Bloom, “Some of my favorite shots of Philip’s have literally several things in focus.”
You can take great pictures without any bokeh at all.
[Part six of the Photography Fundamentals series, be sure to check out all 10 posts!]
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